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Nervous and Mental Disease Monograph 
Series, No. 15 



DREAMS AND MYTHS 

A Study in Race Psychology 



BY 

DR. KARL ABRAHAM 

# Berlin 



Translated by 
WILLIAM A. \yHITE, M.D. 

Washington 



NEW YORK 

THE JOURNAL OF NERVOUS AND MENTAL DISEASE 
PUBLISHING COMPANY 



NERVOUS AND MENTAL DISEASE 
MONOGRAPH SERIES 

Edited by 

Dre. SMITH ELY JELLIFFE and WM. A. WHirS 

Numbers Issued 

1. Outlines of Psychiatry. By Wm. A. White, M.D. 

2. Studies in Paranoia. 

By Drs. N. Gierlich and M. Friedman 

3. The Psychology of Dementia Praecox. 

By Dr. C. G. Jung. 
4 Selected Papers on Hysteria and other Psychoneuroses. 

By Prof. Sigmund Freud. 

5. The Wassermann S^rum Diagnosis in Psychiatry. 

By Dr. Felix Plant. 

6. Epidemic Poliomyelitis. New York Epidemic; 1907. 

7. Three Contributions to Sexual Theory. 

By Pzof . Sigmund Freud. 

8. Mental Mechanisms. 

By Wm. A. White, M.D. 

9. Studies in Psychiatry. 

New York Psychiatrical Society. 

10. Handbook of Mental ExauniEation Methods. 

By Shepherd Ivory Franz 

11. The Theory cf Schizophrenic Negativism. 

By Professor E. Blenler 

12. Cerebellar Functions. 

By Dr. Andri-Thomas. 

13. History of Prison Psychoses. 

By Drs. P. Nitsche and E. Wilmanns. 

14. General Paresis. 



15. Dreams and Myths. 



By Prof E. Kraepelin. 
By Dr. Karl Abraham 



i« 



P^\. 






Copyright, 1 913, by 

The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 

Publishing Company, New York 



Press of 

The new era printing Company 

lancaster, pa. 



AUTHOR'S FOREWORD TO THE AMERICAN 

EDITION 

Three years have elapsed since the appearance of the German 
edition. In the meantime the interest in psychoanalytic researches 
has everywhere grown, more especially in the United States of 
North America. So the need for an English translation of this 
work has arisen. 

The author can only say that the views that he has presented 

in this work have experienced complete confirmation through the 

more recent investigations. 

Dr. Karl Abraham. 
Berlin, September, 1912. 



Ill 



CONTENTS 

I. Object and Viewpoint of Psychoanalytic Investiga- 
tions According to Freud . I 

II. Childhood Phantasies in Dreams and Myths. Appli- 
cation of the Wish Theory to Myths 4 

III. Symbolism in Speech, in Dreams and Other Phantasies 12 

IV. Analysis of the Prometheus Saga 27 

V. Infantilism in Individual and Folk Psychology, Wish- 
fulfillment in Dream and Myth 32 

VI. The Effect of the Censor in Dreams and Myths. The 

Work of Condensation 43 

VII. Displacement and Secondary Elaboration in Dreams 

and M3rths 46 

VIII. The Effect of Displacement in the Sagas of Prome- 
theus, Moses, and Samson 49 

IX. The Means of Representation of the Myth 55 

X. Wish- fulfillment in the Prometheus Saga 58 

XI. Analysis of the Myth of the Origin of Nectar 63 

XII. The Wish Theory of the Myth 69 

XIII. The Determining Forces in the Psychic Life of the 

Individual and th^Race 73 



DREAMS AND MYTHS.* 



Object and Viewpoint of Psychoanalytic Investigations 
According to Freud 

The psychological theories that are associated with the name 
of S. Freud reach out into regions of the psychic life of man, 
which, from outer appearances, have no relation to one another. 
Freud in common with J. Breuer in their "Studien iiber Hysterie" 
(1895) started out from pathological psychic manifestations. 
The progressive elaboration of the psychoanalytic method required 
a searching study of dreams.^ It appeared also that for a full 
understanding of these phenomena the comparative consideration 
of certain other phenomena must be taken up. Freud saw this 
and drew wider and wider areas of the normal and diseased psy- 
chic life into the field of his investigations. So there appeared 
in the Sammlung kleiner Schriften zur Neurosenlehre ( 1906) an 
assortment of studies of hysteria, compulsive ideas, and other 
psychic disturbances, later the monographs "Uber den Witz" 
(1905), the *' Abhandlungen zur Sexualtheorie "^ (1905), and 
lately the psychological analysis of a poet's works,^* which consti- 
tutes the first volume of this series. Freud came to consider these 
apparently heterogeneous products of man's psyche from a com- 
mon viewpoint. They all have in common the relation to the 
unconscious, to the psychic life of childhood, and to the sexuality; 
they have in common the tendency to represent a wish of the indi- 

* Traum und Mythus. Eine Studie zur Volkerpsychologie. Schriften 
zur angewandten Seelenkunde. Leipzig und Wien. Franz Deuticke 1909. 

^"Die Traumdeutung." Wien und Leipzig, 1900 (2 Aufl. 1909). 

*An English translation of this work by Dr. A. A. Brill is No. 7 of 
this Series. 

** " Der Wahn und die Traume in W. Jensens' ' Gradiva.' " Wien und 
Leipzig, 1907, 



2 DREAMS AND MYTHS 

vidual as fulfilled; in common are the means of this representa- 
tion, which serve this end. 

He who is not acquainted with Freud's writings and those of 
his followers, will be astonished that one should earnestly seek to 
place all these expressions near one another under the same view- 
point. He will ask what sort of relations wit has to the uncon- 
scious. He will doubt that a disease can contain a wish- fulfillment 
for the patient who suffers from it and he will not quite compre- 
hend how one can place poetry parallel in this respect. He will 
not understand what general relations are supposed to prevail be- 
tween the dreams of adults and the psyche of the child. He will, 
and this perhaps most, be opposed to the idea that one can ascribe 
to all these psychological phenomena relations to sexuality. And 
so the teachings laid down by Freud appear to be full of contra- 
dictions and absurdities ; they appear as isolated statements with- 
out critique to generalize. Consequently one will be inclined to 
reject, a limine , the methods of investigation, with the help of 
which, results like these are obtained.^ 

If I were to attempt here an answer to the different objections 
I could not avoid a detailed presentation of all of Freud's teach- 
ings and would be obliged to considerably overstep the limits of 
this work. Opportunity will offer, in the course of our inquir}% 
to touch upon the most important problems to which Freud has 
devoted his work. In the meantime suffice a reference: All of 
the psychic phenomena which we above place side by side are the 
products of phantasy. We will not assume, without further 
demonstration, that as such they present certain analogies among 
themselves. 

There are, besides the products of individual phantasy, also 

those that cannot be ascribed to such phantasy. I am satisfied 

• This is about the standpoint taken by ■ the medical profession to 
Freud's teachings. It must be confessed that Freud's teachings must at 
first appear strange to the unprejudiced. It should be emphasized that a 
wide cleft separates them from traditional psychology. That should be no 
ground, however, for dismissing them with a shrug of the shoulders or a 
few witty catch words, as happens on the side of the critics. 



OBJECT AND VIEWPOINT 3 

at this place to mention myths and legends as structures of such 
a kind. We do not know who created them, who first related 
them. In the sagas and legends folk phantasy finds expression. 
Freud has already made them, to a certain degree, the objects of 
his inquiries, and in numerous respects disclosed psychological 
analogies between them and the results of individual phantasy. 
Recently another author has followed in his tracks. Riklin* has 
examined into the psychological analogies of the legends of dif- 
ferent peoples. The proposed work is an attempt to compare 
myths with the phenomena of individual psychology, especially 
with dreams. It will bring out the proof that Freud's teachings, 
in a wide sense, can be transferred to the psychology of myths,. 
and are even qualified to furnish wholly new grounds for the 
understanding of the sagas. ^ 

*The announced work of Riklin: " Wunscherfiillung und Symbolik 
im Marchen " (Vol. 2 of this series) appeared after my work was finished. 
I could, therefore, only make use of a short preliminary communication of 
the author. {Psychiatr.-neurol. Wochenschrift, 1907, Nr. 22-24.) 

''Likewise after the conclusion of this projected work an article of 
Freud appeared (" Der Dichter und das Phantasieren," Neue Revue, 2. 
Marzheft, 1908), which expressed in brief, the fundamental idea of my 
work. (" Es_ ist von den Mythen durchaus wahrscheinlich, dass sie den 
entstellten tJberresten von Wunschphantasien ganzer Nationen, den 
Sakulartraumen der jungen Menscheit entsprechen.") 



II 

Childhood Phantasies in Dreams and Myths. Application 
OF the Wish Theory to Myths 

I will anticipate at once some of the principal evident objec- 
tions to this undertaking as planned. It will be objected that 
myths spring from phantasies which operate during the waking 
state, while dreams owe their origin to sleep and to a condition of 
lowered consciousness. Careful consideration shows, however, 
that this in no way constitutes an important difference. We 
dream not only during sleep; there are also waking dreams. In 
these we transfer ourselves into an artificial situation, and form 
the world and our future according to our wishes. That the same 
tendency dwells in night dreams will very soon be accepted by 
us. Many people tend, in a surprising degree, to day dreaming; 
one sees them thus absorbed. Imperceptible gradations lead 
over here to a pathological activity of phantasy. Children give 
themselves to such dream-like phantasies very readily. The little 
boy, in his day dream, is king of a great realm and conquers in 
bloody battles ; or he distinguishes himself as an Indian chief or 
in some other manner. Pathological grades of absorption in day 
dreams are not rare among children. We already see from this 
that there is no sharp dividing line between waking phantasies 
and dreams. We know further, however, from Freud's re- 
searches, that the dream thoughts do not arise during the dream 
but are representations from previous waking periods. In the 
dream they only maintain a form, which differs from that in which 
we commonly care to express our thoughts. 

Another objection, which likewise only has an apparent valid- 
ity, concerns itself with the fashioning of the point of departure 
for our further consideration. It will be shown that the dream 

4 



n 



CHILDHOOD PHANTASIES IN DREAMS AND MYTHS 5 

is an individual product, while in myths there is stored, in a way, 
the collective spirit of a people. One finds the comparison in- 
valid. This error is easy to refute. If dreams originate from 
the emotions of individuals so there are emotions which are com- 
mon to mankind. These express themselves in what Freud calls 
"typical" dreams. Freud has succeeded in tracing back this 
group of dreams to certain wishes common to all men, at the same 
time to point out that these same wishes lie at the bottom of 
certain myths. Freud's deductions regarding typical dreams may 
thus serve as a basis for our researches. Still it commends itself 
to us for our purposes, to take up the analysis of the typical 
dreams as a starting point. They give us opportunity to investi- 
gate the wish theory of dreams. Besides they offer, as will be 
shown, in certain respects, simpler situations than most other 
dreams.^ 

According to the theory of Freud there lies, at the bottom of 
every dream, a repressed wish in the unconscious. Every one 
experiences occurrences which he afterwards can never recall 
without a lively feeling of pain. He seeks to force such reminis- 
cences out of his consciousness. He is not able fully to extin- 
guish them from memory; he can only repress them into the 
unconscious. The repressed memories and the wishes associated 
with them are only apparently forgotten; that is to say they are 
withdrawn from spontaneous recall. So soon, however, as the 
function of consciousness is in any way impaired, when phantasy 
takes the place of logically ordered thought, as is the case in day 
dreaming, the dream, and under the most varied pathological sit- 
uations, then the repressed psychic material becomes again free. 
In dreams, and in the symptoms of certain psychic disturbances, 
the repressed wishes come again to expression. Their formerly 

'A further, apparently very substantial objection against the conceived 
relationship of dreams and myths arises from the gradual rise of myths 
through many generations, while the dream appears to be a transitory, 
short-lived structure. This objection will find its refutation in the course 
of our investigations. 



6 DREAMS AND MYTHS 

hoped for, but delayed fulfilling is represented now in phantasy. 
That an important part of the repressed wishes spring from the 
period of childhood is one of the facts established by Freud and 
to which we must later come back. For the present it is sufficient 
to keep in mind that according to Freud's view the dream repre- 
sents the fulfillment of a repressed wish and that the deepest roots 
of this wish lie in the childhood of the dreamer. 

Freud especially emphasizes that the typical dream is de- 
scended from infantile reminiscences. Especially instructive, in 
this respect, are those dreams which deal with the death of near 
relatives. These dreams at first glance appear absolutely to 
contradict his view that every dream contains a wish fulfillment. 
Probably every one who has at some time dreamt of the death 
of a near relative whom he loved, will energetically assume the 
defensive if one assumes that he wished the death of his relative 
and that this secret wish came to expression in the dream. He 
will also emphasize that the dream was accompanied by the most 
painful feelings of anxiety and fright and so perhaps brought to 
expression an apprehension but certainly not a wish. 

The theory in no way refers only to actual wishes but lays 
stress with great emphasis upon the significance of early infantile 
emotions. If one dreams of the death of a dear relative it is not 
at all necessary, according to Freud's teachings, to draw the con- 
clusion that the dreamer now has such a wish ; he needs only to 
have had it at some, perhaps remote time. To be sure one will 
not easily acknowledge this either. 

The child, up to a certain age that shows considerable varia- 
tions, is free from altruistic feelings. He lives in a naive egoism. 
It is throughout erroneous to assume that the feeling of the child 
for its parents and brothers and sisters is from the beginning a 
feeling of affection. On the contrary there exists instead among 
the children a certain rivalry. When a second child is born the 
first, who had been an only child up to that time, clearly shows 



CHILDHOOD PHANTASIES IN DREAMS AND MYTHS *J 

jealousy on account of the attention paid to it because of its help- 
lessness. It is quite usual that a child will not give the bottle of 
milk to the younger, that its jealousy is stirred up when it sees 
the newcomer sitting on its mother's lap, which was formerly only 
its own place. It envies it its playthings, it emphasizes its own 
superiority when it speaks of the younger one to adults. The 
younger child reacts, as soon as it is in a position to, in just such 
an egoistic manner. It sees in the elder an oppressor and seeks 
to help itself as well as its weakness makes possible. Under 
normal conditions these contrasts gradually disappear to a great 
extent. They are never wholly rooted out in spite of all educa- 
tional measures. 

This hostile attitude of one child toward the other finds its 
expression in the wish that the other were dead. Naturally it 
will be disputed that a child can be so " bad " as to wish the other 
dead. "Who says that does not consider that the idea of the 
child of ' death ' has little in common with ours except the word " 
(Freud). The child has no clear idea of the death of a person. 
It hears perhaps that this or that relative has died, is dead. For 
the child that only means : that person is no longer there. Daily 
experience teaches us how easily the child gets over the absence 
of a loved person. It perhaps stretches the hand forth in the 
direction in which the mother has gone, it cries a little while — 
then consoles itself with games or food and no longer recalls 
spontaneously the going away. Older children of normal psychic 
constitution also get over a separation easily. In early years the 
child identifies death with absence. It cannot represent to itself 
that anyone, of whose death it has been told, will never again 
return. We understand now how a child in all harmlessness 
wishes the death of the other (or any other person). It is its 
rivalry: were it not so, then the occasion for rivalry and jealousy 
would be removed. 

Between brothers and sisters this relationship of rivalry is 



8 DREAMS AND MYTHS 

milder than between children of the same sex, moderated by the 
sexual attraction. We will have to consider this point later. 

New opposition arises when we consider the relation of the 
child to the parents from the above viewpoint. How can one 
assume that the child wishes the death of the father or the mother ? 
One will at most grant this in such cases as the abuse of the child 
by the parents, but will add that these are fortunately exceptional 
cases to whom the generalization is not applicable. 

The dream of the death of the father or mother, as it occurs 
to everyone, contains the sought- for explanation. Freud shows 
from it that " the dream of the death of parents is preponderat- 
ingly common concerning that one of the pair of the same sex 
as the dreamer, so the son, for the most part dreams of the death 
of the father, the daughter of the death of the mother." This 
behavior is explained in part as due to an early sexual preference 
of the son for the mother, the daughter for the father. Out of 
this preference groVs a certain rivalry of the son with the father 
for the love of the mother, and a similar situation between 
daughter and mother for the love of the father. The son rebels 
earlier or later against the patria potestas, in some cases openly, 
in others inwardly. At the same time the father protects his 
dominance against the growing son. A similar relation occurs 
between mother and daughter. As much as culture may soften 
or change this rivalry, through piety towards the parents, through 
love of the children, still its traces cannot be extinguished. In 
the most favorable cases these tendencies become repressed in the 
unconscious. Straightway they express themselves in dreams. 
Children, who are disposed to nervous or psychic disease, show, 
already in the early years, a very strong love or a very strong 
repulsion towards the parents or towards one of them. In their 
dreams they show these tendencies especially clearly, not less 
clearly, however, in the symptoms of their later disease. Freud 
gives very instructive examples of this kind.^ He cites, among 

' " Traumdeutung," Seite 179 f. 



CHILDHOOD PHANTASIES IN DREAMS AND MYTHS 9 

Others, the case of a mentally ill girl who for the first time, in a 
period of confusion, expressed violent aversion for her mother. 
As the patient became clearer she dreamt of the death of her 
mother. Finally she no longer contented herself with repressing 
in the unconscious her feelings against her mother, but proceeded 
to over-compensate for that feeling by constructing a phobia, 
that is a morbid fear, that something might happen to the mother. 
The aversion became transposed, the more the patient gained com- 
posure, into an excessive apprehension about her mother's goings 
and comings. I have myself lately observed a quite similar case. 

As complementary it may be mentioned that the dreams of 
adults not infrequently turn on the death of a child. Pregnant 
women, who suffer from their condition, dream of an abortion. 
Fathers or mothers, who in the waking state tenderly love their 
child, dream under special conditions that it is dead, for example, 
when the existence of the child interferes with the attainment of 
an object. 

The typical dream then contains wishes which we in our wak- ^ 
ing life will not admit. In the dream life these secret wishes find 
expression. These wishes, common to many or to all mankind, 
we meet also in the myths. The first point of comparison to 
occupy us is, then, the common content of certain dreams and 
myths. We must follow Freud's lead still further. For, as men- 
tioned, he has first analyzed a particular myth — the CEdipus saga 
— from the viewpoint set forth in his " Traumdeutung." I cite 
literally the following passage from Freud.^ 

" CEdipus, son of Laius, King of Thebes, and Jocasta, was, as 
a suckling, exposed, because an oracle had prophesied to the 
father, that the yet unborn son would be his murderer. He was 
saved and grew up as a king's son in a strange court, until he, 
uncertain of his origin, questioned the oracle himself and received 
from it the advice, to avoid his home, because he would be the 
murderer of his father and the mate of his mother. On the way 

■ " Traumdeutung," Seite 180 f. 



10 DREAMS AND MYTHS 

from his supposed home he fell in with King Laius and slew him 
in a quickly stirred up dispute. Then he arrived before Thebes 
where he solved the riddle of the sphinx that blocked the way and 
as reward was chosen king by the Thebans and given Jocasta's 
hand in marriage. He reigned a long time in peace and honor 
and begot with his unknown mother two sons and two daughters, 
until a pestilence broke out, which caused the Thebans again to 
consult the oracle. Here is the material of the tragedy of Soph- 
ocles. The messengers brought the answer that the plague would 
cease when the murderer of Laius was driven from the land. 
The action of the story now consists only in the step by step 
gradual and skillfully delayed unfolding — like the work of a psy- 
choanalysis — of the fact that CEdipus himself was the murderer 
of Laius and also the son of the murdered King and of Jocasta.'* 

The CEdipus tragedy can affect us today as deeply as at the 
time of Sophocles, although we do not share the views of gods 
and fate, and the belief in sayings of the oracle. Freud concludes 
from this correctly that the fable must contain something that 
calls out in us all related feelings. " For us all, perhaps, was it 
decreed, to direct the first sexual feeling to the mother, the first 
hate and violent wish against the father ; our dreams convict us of 
that." In the CEdipus tragedy we see our childhood wish ful- 
filled, while we ourselves have recovered from the sexual attrac- 
tion of the mother and the aversion against the father in the 
course of our development through feelings of love and piety. 

As Freud remarks, the tragedy points to the typical dream in 
which the dreamer is sexually united with the mother. This 
point is the purport of the following: 

" For many men also saw themselves in dreams, already united 
with their mother." 

The tragedy contains the realization of two intimate childhood 
dream phantasies : The phantasy of the death of the father and of 
the love relationship with the mother. The results of their reali- 
zation are represented to us in all their terribleness. 



CHILDHOOD PHANTASIES IN DREAMS AND MYTHS II 

The same conflict between father and son is represented in the 

••/''th of Uranus and the Titans. Uranus seeks to remove his 

IS, as he fears their encroachment on his power. His son 

onus took revenge by castrating his father. This particular 

type of revenge points to the sexual side of their rivalry. Then 

Cronus seeks to secure himself in the same manner against his 

children: He swallowed them all except the youngest son Zeus. 

This one took revenge on him, compelled him to disgorge the 

other children and then banished all the other Titans in Tartarus ; 

according to another version Zeus also castrated his father. 



Ill 

Symbolism in Speech, in Dreams and in Other Phantasies 

Both the tales of CEdipus and of Uranus and their descendants 
have not only a related content, but show also in their outer form 
an important agreement. In both there is lacking, almost alto- 
gether, the symbolic clothing. We learn the whole story from 
naked words. It is worthy of note that this is also true of the 
typical dream, which we have drawn upon for the explanation of 
these myths. Here also — as Freud remarks — the symbolic cloth- 
ing is found in strikingly slight development. 

In general, in the .interpretation of dreams, we always run 
across anew the effects of a psychic determinant which Freud has 
called the "censor." This will occupy our attention later; here 
we will only briefly characterize its most important features. The 
censor will not permit our secret wishes to show themselves in 
our dreams in their true, undisguised form, but forces an obscur- 
ing of the true tendency of the dream through the " dream distor- 
tion." The evasion of the censor is accomplished by a very ex- 
tensive " dream work." We will consider its manifestations more 
in detail later. Only one form of dream distortion — the symbolic 
clothing of the wish — must we busy oui^elves with now. The 
above discussed dream of the death of the father and sexual rela- 
tions with the mother is a striking exception, in so far as here 
the wish, which appears to us in the waking state as abhorrent, 
is represented quite openly, without symbolic clothing, as fulfilled. 
Freud explains this by two factors. We do not believe our- 
selves further from any wish than from this one; the censor is 
not occupied with such monstrosities. Secondly, the wish may 
very easily be concealed behind actual apprehension for the life 
of the beloved person. Now it is of the greatest interest that 

12 



SYMBOLISM IN SPEECH 1 3 

the CEdipus saga and the saga of Cronus and Zeus are also very 
poor in symbolic means of expression. Every man believes him- 
self in his waking consciousness infinitely removed from the hor- 
rors of CEdipus or of Cronus in his relations to his children and 
to his father. 

We state provisionally that noteworthy analogies exist between 
certain myths and certain dreams. It will be necessary to inquire 
further whether these analogies have a general significance. The 
analysis of most myths — as of most dreams — is rendered difficult 
by the symbolic clothing of their true content. Because in the 
CEdipus saga, as in the typical dreams of like content, this com- 
plication does not exist, they serve us especially well as an intro- 
duction to these interesting problems. 

The majority of myths are presented in a symbolic manner 
and so in reality they must contain something or mean something 
that their outer form does not signify. They require, like the 
dream, to be interpreted. As an example of a symbolic myth the 
Prometheus saga will serve us. We will subject this to a method 
of interpretation similar to that of dream analysis. The further 
issue of the comparison of dreams and myths we shall continue 
by the use of this example. 

I know upon what contradictions I will strike if I aspire to 
an interpretation of myths after the model of dream interpreta- 
tion, and if I maintain that here as well as there the same sym- 
bolism governs. It is Freud's great service to have fathomed this 
symbolism. Thanks to this study we have learned to know the 
important relations between these repeatedly mentioned psychic 
structures. The value of this knowledge, which was attained by 
the most painstaking studies, is absolutely and often passionately 
disputed by the critic. By the opponents of Freud's teachings 
the interpretation of symbols is rejected as phantastic and arbi- 
trary. Freud and his followers are laboring under the power of 
autosuggestion which makes them explain everything in accord- 



14 DREAMS AND MYTHS 

ance with their preconceived ideas. They arouse the dislike of 
their critics by conceiving the symbolism of dreams and related 
states as expressions of sexual ideas. None of Freud's teachings, 
differing as they do so much from those commonly held, are at- 
tacked with such violence as the interpretation of symbolism. 
This is of the greatest significance for our further progress. 
Therefore, before I enter upon the exposition of the symbolism 
of any one myth, I will lay the broadest possible foundations for 
this part of my studies. To this end I will call attention to the 
fact that the symbolisms investigated by Freud lie deep in every 
man and have existed at all times in mankind. Therefore it comes 
to pass that preponderantly the expression of sexual phantasies 
are brought about by sexual symbolism. My following deduc- 
tions rest in part upon the valuable writings of Kleinpaul.® This 
author has also seen the necessity of taking a stand against moral- 
izing critics. I will cite a remark of Kleinpaul's^^ to the point: 
" We must point out the fact that such (i. e., sexual) phantasies 
do not belong only to patriarchal times, where they were natural, 
but have continued up to the present time, where they are branded 
as corrupt." Sexual symbolism, I assert, is a psychological phe- 
nomenon of mankind in all places and times. In the beginnings 
of our culture it was most clearly in evidence, and in a less crass 
but always clearer form it has asserted itself in the psychic life 
of mankind up to the present day. Kleinpaul says very aptly, 
" Man sexualizes everything." 

If we first glance at the beginning of the plastic arts, we find 
representations of the human sexual parts in endless profusion, 
sometimes hidden, sometimes with a clearness that permits of 
no doubt. Sometimes their forms are used as decorative orna- 
ments, sometimes vases, pitchers, and other utensils of the most 
different kinds have the form of the genitals. In the art products 

• Kleinpaul, " Leben der Sprache," Bd. i ; " Die Ratsel der Spfache^' 
Bd. 2 ; " Sprache ohne Worte," Bd. 3 ; " Das Stromgebiet der Sprache." 
" " Sprache ohne Wbrte," Leipzig, 1890, Seite 490. 



SYMBOLISM IN SPEECH I 5 

of the most different peoples we find objects, which according to 
the type, have borrowed their form and also bear the name. 
Egyptian, Greek, Etruscan and Roman vessels and utensils are 
convincing signs of this sexual symbolism existing at all times in 
the folks. If we consider the art work and utensils of peoples 
poor in culture we make the same observation — otherwise we 
must intentionally close our eyes. The literature of art is another 
wide and fruitful territory for work, for observations of this kind 
are widely scattered in the literature. 

A perhaps greater significance is assumed by sexual symbolism 
in the religious cults of all peoples. Numerous practices show 
sexual symbolism. The cult, extensive in many peoples, of fruit- 
fullness, gives occasion for the most wanton symbolism which in 
no wise simply expresses itself in the grossly unequivocal (phal- 
lus, etc.). 

We do not need at all, however, to seek so far from the daily 
walks of life. Our speech itself is the best sign for the signifi- 
cance which the sexual has had in the thoughts of mankind at all 
times. All indogermanic and Semitic languages possess (or did 
possess in earlier times) gender. That is a fact that is commonly 
little regarded. However let us ask ourselves: Why have the 
words in our language masculine and feminine gender? Why 
does language attribute to lifeless objects one or the other sex? 
A part of the indogermanic languages have even a third gender ; 
in which are included those words which find no place in the two 
other categories, either because phantasy seeks in vain a sexual 
analogy or because on some special ground sexual neutrality is to 
be emphasized. Indeed the reason why an object has the one 
and not the other sex is in no way always easy to discover. It 
is also to be remembered that many substantives not seldom have 
different genders in two nearly related languages. It would lead 
much too far if we were to go into this highly interesting problem 
of philology. We shall only refer here to certain rules, espe- 



1 6 DREAMS AND MYTHS 

cially of the German language. In the German language all 
diminutives belong to the neuter gender. The folk phantasy com- 
pares them to undeveloped, not full grown persons. Of small 
children we say by preference " it " and treat them as neuters ; 
in many places grown girls are spoken of still as "it" so long 
only as they are not married. Maiden (Madchen) and Miss 
(Fraulein) are diminutive and therefore neuter until they marry. 
Animals have many quite different names according as to whether 
they are male or female. Other animals, however, are considered 
under one of the three grammatical sexes whether feminine or 
masculine. In certain cases the cause is apparent. Of the animals, 
those are masculine in which one finds the characteristics which 
belong to the man, as especially bodily strength, courage, etc. 
Therefore the great beasts and birds of prey are masculine. Cat 
(Die Katze) we generally use as feminine; her submissive nature, 
her grace and adroitness remind one of feminine characteristics. 
These examples are sufficient. 

That also lifeless things are sexualized in speech is a still more 
noteworthy fact. There are objects, which, in the different lan- 
guages, are regularly or preferably given a certain sex. Here is 
presented some of the familiar sexual symbolisms of different 
peoples. The ship, in German, bears by preference the feminine 
gender. Also the name given to the ship is usually feminine, even 
though it is otherwise masculine. So in the English language, 
which only shows the rudiments of a sexual differentiation, the 
ship is feminine; but the battleship is compared to the fighting 
man and called " man-of-war." It is significant for this concep- 
tion that we find on the keel of many ships a female figure as an 
ornament. " In seamen's eyes the ship not simply has shoulders 
and a stern, it is comparable to the ark, that conceals the germ 
of life, to the mystic casket that was borne by the women at the 
feasts of Demeter and Dionysus. It is like the mate of the Indian 
god Siva, it moves on the sea with the mast as with a phallus " 



SYMBOLISM IN SPEECH 1/ 

(Kleinpaul). I would like to mention here still another idea. 
The sailor lives, often for a long time, separated from his wife 
while he is bound to his ship. He lives with his ship as the lands- 
man lives with his wife and family. So the ship becomes figura- 
tively the sailor's wife. 

The pupil of the human eye, which appears as a round, black 
spot is sexualized in the same way in the most different languages. 
" Pupilla " in Latin signifies a maiden ; the Greek fcopr)^ the Spanish 
nifia, the Sanskrit Kauna, have all the same sense. The Hebrew 
has two expressions, one signifies maiden (Madchen), the other 
little man (Mannlein). The little reflection that one sees of him- 
self in the pupil of another, according to the view of most investi- 
gators, gives the occasion for this naming. Kleinpaul protests 
against this poetic explanation and offers a more naturalistic one. 
The round spot in the middle of the iris is compared by a naive 
phantasy with a hole and is treated as a gross symbol for the 
female sex, quite as happens, for example, with the ear. Which- 
ever explanation may be correct — ^the fact remains of the sexual- 
izing of wholly asexual objects. 

In certain German dialects hooks and eyes indicate masculine 
and feminine. Expressions like mother, matrix, punch exist in 
the most various trades; there is always expressed a cavity and 
a pin which fits in it. In Italian there are masculine and feminine 
keys according as they have solid or hollow ends to oppose to 
the lock. 

We speak of cities, yes of whole countries as female. Nearly 
all trees are, for us, feminine ; manifestly the bearing of fruit is 
the tertium comparationis. In Latin the femininity of trees is a 
strongly supported rule ("Die Weiber, Baume, Stadte, Land," 
etc.). 

I confine myself to a few pregnant examples. If one dips a 
little into the study of his own tongue he everywhere runs across 
this sexual symbolism. Kleinpaul's "Das Stromgebiet der 
Sprache" offers rich material in this respect. 



1 8 DREAMS AND MYTHS 

Human fancy, imputes sex also to lifeless objects. This 
shows the powerful significance of the sexual in human phantasy. 
It follows further, that man in no way stands to lifeless objects 
in a clearly objective but in a distinctly subjective relation, which 
springs from his sexuality. It lies deep in the nature of man 
that he should attribute life to the things that surround him: 
the child scolds and strikes the table on which he has struck 
himself. Man does not confine himself however to attributing 
life to things but he sexualizes them also. And so we come to 
an understanding of the view of Kleinpaul above, that man sex- 
ualizes everything. It is noteworthy that investigations in lan- 
guage and biologico-medical investigations lead in this particular 
to the same results. 

As Freud^^ has shown, the sexual impulse of man in its early 
stages is auto-erotic, that is, man does not yet know any object 
outside of himself on which he is able to concentrate his libido. 
At first the libido gradually turns to other objects, at this time, 
however, not only human and living, but also lifeless. It will 
be the object of another publication to deal with this radiation 
of the sexuality, especially of the abnormalities in this territory, 
which for the comprehension of certain mental disorders are of 
very broad significance. 

We have established, that all mankind from the beginning, 
has given great weight to the sexual differences. Human sex- 
uality displays a need of expansion far beyond the object of sex- 
ual satisfaction. Man permeates and impresses everything in his 
environment with his sexuality and language is the witness of his, 
at all times, creative sexual phantasy. Such facts appear notably 
opposed to the reproach that Freud and his followers overesti- 
mate the role of the sexuality in the normal and pathological 
mental life. The danger of underestimating appears to me to lie 
much nearer. An often heard objection to Freud runs further, 

" See " Drei Abhandlungen zur Sexualtheorie." English translation 
No. 7, of Nervous and Mental Disease Monograph Series. 



SYMBOLISM IN SPEECH 1 9 

that the impulse of self-preservation governs human life to a 
much greater extent than the sexual impulse; the prominent 
position of the latter is therefore an exaggeration. The aim of 
the investigation inaugurated by Freud is in finding in every- 
thing a sexual meaning. In consciousness certainly the impulse 
of self-preservation with its radiations may often enough have 
precedence. The opponents of Freud, however, commit the error 
that only conscious processes are referred to. Freud has never 
maintained that the conscious sexual ideas have, among all the 
others, unconditioned superiority. It is precisely the uncon- 
scious, repressed ideas which influence phantasy in the strongest 
manner. 

All objections brought against Freud's sexual theory melt 
away into nothing if we only consider our mother tongue. Lan- 
guage springs, as nothing else does, from the innermost being of 
a people. Out of it speaks the phantasy of a people ; it expresses 
itself in a thousand symbols and analogies of which we ourselves 
are hardly conscious anymore. We do not speak a sentence in 
which a symbolic expression does not occur. This symbolism is, 
however, in an important and weighty part, of a sexual char- 
acter. I return once more to the fact that there are in our lan- 
guage masculine, feminine, and sexless (neuter) words. If 
the opponents of Freud are right, that is if in reality the impulse 
of self-preservation and not the sex impulse plays the predomi- 
nant role in the mental life of man, it must be very surprising 
that the language is divided according to sexual viewpoints! 
Why does not language rather discriminate things according as 
to whether they are favorable or not to our impulse to self- 
preservation? Why not differentiate instead of masculine, fem- 
inine, and sexless things perhaps edible, potable, and as a third 
category, inedible things? There are a number of objects and 
activities which since the earliest times have served as sexual 
symbols. We find them with this meaning in the Bible, the 



20 DREAMS AND MYTHS 

Vedas, in the Greek and in the Norse myths, in the poetry of 
the pre-historic times, in dreams and so forth, again and again. 
Here belongs, for example, the serpent as a symbol of the male 
member. In Genesis it is the seducer of Eve. In the German 
and Norse legends we again find the serpent with the same 
significance.^^ The serpent plays an important role in the dreams 
of women; the significance of the symbol seems to be evident. 
The superstitious fear of the snake is surely dependent upon the 
same idea.^^ We hear, not infrequently, from mentally ill 
women that they have been attacked by snakes, that they have, 
crawled into their genitals or their mouth. We know that the 
mouth in this sense is only a substitute for the vulva. (Freud's 
" Verlegung nach oben." Compare also Riklin's writings already 
cited.) 

Another very popular symbol is the apple which represents 
the fruitfulness of the woman. Eve seduced Adam with the 
apple.^* 

The depth of sexual symbolism in man is shown in a very 
instructive way in the associations experiment. Stimulus words 
are called out to the subject to which he must react with other 
words occurring to him. The choice of the reaction word as 
well as certain signs accompanying the reaction show, in many 
cases, that the stimulus word has hit upon, through an associative 
path-way, a "complex," existing in the subject, of a sexual 
nature.^® The readiness, even of the most innocent words to as- 

" Riklin, " Psychologic und Sexualsymbolik der Marchcn." 

"Compare remarks on p. 58. 

" One symbol of fruitfulness is the pomegranate evidently on account 
of its many seeds. It is therefore the attribute of Juno the goddess of 
wedlock. The poppy-head, rich in seeds, is an attribute of Venus. In one 
saga Venus changed herself into a carp ; the great number of eggs bom 
by the female carp was proverbial in ancient times. In many countries 
at the time of the wedding the bridal pair are pelted with rice. Similar 
practices prevail in many places; it signifies the blessing of children. 
Compare Kleinpaul, " Sprache ohne Worte," p. 27. 

" In the work of the Ziirich psychiatric cHnic (especially in that of 
Jung " Diagnostischen Assoziationsstudien ") the term "complex" is used 
for a strongly feeling-toned group of ideas, which has the tendency to split 
off from consciousness and be repressed into the unconscious. 



SYMBOLISM IN SPEECH 21 

similate to the complex, in the symbolic sense of the complex, is 
often enormous. This tendency does not at all come into the 
consciousness of the subject when he answers with the reaction 
word. In many cases they can themselves explain the depend- 
ence of the reaction word on a sexual complex whereby they 
must overcome a more or less strong inhibition. In other cases 
a more difficult analytic effort is required on the part of the 
investigator in order to uncover the connection. Whoever has 
some experience in the technic of the experiment and psycho- 
analysis, will find enough evidence in the reaction and the accom- 
panying signs, in order to give his questions the right direction. 
In the Ziirich psychiatric clinic a list of one hundred stimulus 
words is in use ; their use by very many persons has given inter- 
esting results relative to the sexual symbolism of the uncon- 
scious, which besides, Freud has fully covered by results obtained 
in other ways. 

Some examples might serve to explain. A stimulus word, that 
calls forth striking psychic phenomena with great regularity is 
the verb "to plough" (pfliigen). As an experimental stimulus 
word it produces in the subject all those appearances that we 
have learned to recognize, through experience, as signs of an 
emotion: Lengthening of the reaction time, failure to under- 
stand or repetition of the stimulus word, stuttering in pronounc- 
ing the stimulus word, signs of embarrassment, etc. Evidently 
*'to plow" is considered by the subject as a symbolic representa- 
tion of the sexual act. It is interesting that in Greek and Latin as 
well as in the Oriental languages " to plow " is used quite generally 
in this sense.^^ Other stimulus words such as "long" (lang), 
"mast" (Mast), "needle" (Nadel), "narrow" (eng), "part" 
(Teil), are with astonishing regularity assimilated in a sexual 
sense. We take up words, which are commonly used without 
such association, in a sexual sense. If a strong sexual complex 
is present this tendency is especially great. . 

" Kleinpaul, " Ratsel der Sprache/' p. 136. 



22 DREAMS AND MYTHS 

In the face of such facts it appears quite clear to me that 
symbolism, and especially the sexual, is a common possession 
of all mankind. The objection, that symbolism, or the signifi- 
cance ascribed to it, exists only in the phantasy of a biased in- 
vestigator falls down. Kleinpaul^^ expresses his meaning on this 
point with great precision and exactness : " Symbols are not made, 
but they are there ; they are not invented, but only discovered."^® 

I will not be satisfied to refer to Freud's deductions and the 
example of a dream analyzed by him, but will give here a 
fragment of a dream analysis, so far as it is necessary for the 
explanation of the symbolism; the remaining dream material, 
for reasons of brevity, I will not consider. The dream, which 
was told to me by an acquaintance, runs as follows: 

" I am alone in a long room. Suddenly I hear a subterra- 
nean noise, which does not astonish me, however, as I immediately 
remember, that from a place below a subterranean canal runs 
out to the water. I lift up a trap-door in the floor, and imme- 
diately a creature appears clothed in a brownish fur that resem- 
bled very nearly a seal. It threw off the fur and appeared clearly 
as my brother, who prayed of me, exhausted and breathless, to 
give him shelter, as he had run away without permission and 

" Kleinpaul, " Sprache ohne Worte," p. 26. 

" The critics of Freud disdain to busy themselves seriously with sym- 
bols and their nature. Recently, for example, Weygandt (" Kritische 
Bemerkungen zur Psychologic der Dementia praecox," Monatsschrift fiir 
Psychiatrie und Neurologic, Bd. 22, 1907) has attempted designedly to 
attribute the most absurd meaning to the symptoms of a dream state. He 
believes to have shown thereby the arbitrariness and absurdity of the 
Freudian method of interpretation. Here the fundamental error of the 
critic is manifest. It is believed that the symbol is arbitrarily invented, 
consciously produceable. It follows, however, from Freud's writings that 
symbolism has its roots in the unconscious. Always then, when the domi- 
nation of the conscious is wholly or partially abolished — in sleep, in dream 
states, in states of disturbed attention — repressed ideational material 
emerges. These ideas appear in disguised form; they avail themselves of 
symbolism. As Bleuler deduces ("Freudsche Mechanismen in der Symp- 
tomatologie der Psychosen," Psychiatr.-neurol, Wochenschrift, 1906) 
symbolism depends upon a lower form of associative activity, which instead 
of logical connection makes use of vague analogies. Of this sort of 
associative activity we are not at all capable in times of clear conscious- 
ness and alert attention. Symbolism consequently can not be arbitrarily 
invented. 



SYMBOLISM IN SPEECH 23 

swum under water the whole way. I induced him to stretch him- 
self out on a couch in the room, and he fell asleep. A few mo- 
ments later I heard renewed a much louder noise at the door. 
My brother sprang up with a cry of terror: they will take me, 
they will think I have deserted : He slipped on his furs and tried 
to escape through the subterranean canal, turned about imme- 
diately, however, and said: Nothing can be done, they have 
occupied the passage from here to the water! At this moment 
the door sprung open and several men rushed in and seized my 
brother. I cried to them despairingly: he has done nothing, I 
will plead for him ! — At this moment I awoke." 

The dreamer had been married for some time and was in the 
early period of pregnancy. She looks forward to her confine- 
ment, not without anxiety. In the evening she had had various 
things about the development and physiology of the fetus ex- 
plained to her by her physician. She had already pretty well 
oriented herself in relation to the whole subject from books but 
still had some erroneous ideas. She had, for example, not cor- 
rectly grasped the significance of the waters. Further, she rep- 
resented to herself the fine fetal hair (lanugo) as thick like that 
on a young animal. 

The canal that leads directly into the water = the birth canal. 
Water = amniotic fluid. Out of this canal comes a hairy animal 
like a seal. The seal is a hairy animal that lives in water quite 
as the fetus lives in the amniotic fluid. This creature, the ex- 
pected child, appears immediately: quick, easy confinement. It 
appears as the brother of the dreamer. The brother is, as a 
matter of fact, considerably younger than the dreamer. After 
the early death of the mother she had to care for him and stood 
in a relationship to him that had much of motherliness in it. 
She still preferably called him the " little one " and both younger 
children together "the children." The younger brother repre- 
sented the expected child. She wished for a visit from him 



24 DREAMS AND MYTHS 

(she lived at a considerable distance from her family), so she 
awaited first the brother, second the child. Here is the second 
analogy between brother and child. She wished, because of 
reasons that have no particular interest here, that her brother 
leave his place of residence. Therefore he has " deserted " his 
residence in the dream. The place lies on the water; he swims 
there very often (the third analogy with the fetus!). Also her 
residence lies on the water. The small room, in which she had 
the dream, has an outlook upon the water. In the room stands 
a lounge that can be used as a bed; it serves as a bed when there 
is a guest who remains over night. She awaited her brother, as 
such a guest, in this room. A fourth analogy: the room will 
later become a nursery, the baby will sleep there ! 

The brother is breathless when he arrives. He has swum 
under the water. Also the fetus, when it has left the canal, 
must struggle for breath. The brother falls to sleep at once like 
a child soon after its birth. 

Now follows a scene in which the brother exhibits a lively 
anxiety in a situation out of which there is no escape. One such 
imminent to the dreamer herself is the confinement. This pre- 
pares anxiety for her already in advance. In the dream she 
displaces the anxiety to the fetus by way of the brother repre- 
senting it. She induces him to lie down because he is so ex- 
hausted. After the confinement she will be exhausted and lie 
down — in the dream she is active and lets the brother lie down. 
She extends the affair in still another way: The brother is a 
jurist and must act as an advocate, "plead." This role she takes 
from him, she will plead for him. Therefore she displaces her 
anxiety on him. 

This dream contains symbols which may serve as typical 
examples. Between a child and a seal, between a subterranean 
canal and the birth canal there exist only vague analogies. Not- 
withstanding one is used for the other in the dream. The 



SYMBOLISM IN SPEECH 25 

brother of the dreamer appears in place of the child, although 
he has been grown up for a long time. For her he is just the 
little one (der Kleine). The dream makes use by preference of 
such words which can be understood in different senses. 

The wish- fulfilling of this dream is in part evident : The wish 
for an easy confinement about which it is not necessary to be 
anxious, and the wish to be able to care for the brother. It is 
probable that this, not fully and finally interpreted dream, con- 
tains still a further concealed wish-fulfillment within itself. 

In order to show that certain psychopathological states have 
the same sort of symbolism I will give only one example. The 
hallucinations of the mentally deranged whether they continue for 
many years or only appear transitorily during a dream state, re- 
semble the dream pictures to an extraordinary extent. The an- 
alysis shows that it is not simply a superficial similarity. 

A little girl when ten years of age was abused by her uncle, 
a drunkard, in the barn near her parents' house. He had threat- 
ened to set the house on fire if she resisted him. Through the 
intimidation of the threats she yielded to the uncle several times. 
On one occasion of this sort her mind became disordered, the 
memory crystallized on the sexual outrage and self-reproach, 
which she had on account of her compliance, the real content of 
the psychosis and which determined the symptoms. She con- 
cealed herself behind a sexual symbolism which was throughout 
in accord with the dream symbolism. From the original account 
of this case which I have already published^^ I will cite this in- 
teresting sentence: The patient suffered for many years with 
nocturnal visions, she saw especially the burning barn. This 
vision is plainly doubly determined; the uncle had threatened to 
start a fire and had abused her in the barn. Besides she had 
frightful dreams. Once there came a lot of owls; they looked 
at her sharply, flew at her, tore off her covering and smock and 

" " tjber die Bedeutung sexiteller Jugendtraumen f iir die Symptom- 
atologie der Dementia praecox," Zentralblatt f. Nervenheilk., 1907. 



26 DREAMS AND MYTHS 

cried : shame on you, you are naked ! This is plainly a reminis- 
cence of the outrage. Later in the waking state, she saw hell. 
The scene which she saw here was strongly sexually colored. 
She saw "transformed creatures," half animal, half human, as 
snakes, tigers, owls. There appeared also drunkards who 
changed into tigers and attacked female animals. In the wish- 
fulfillments contained in these visions and dreams one recognizes 
the whole history of the case. Here is sufficient to understand 
the symbol. Especially interesting is the incorporation of the 
uncle of the patient in the "transformed creature," which was 
compounded of the drunkard and the tiger. The drunkenness 
and beastly roughness of the uncle were united in a symbol. 
The serpent, in a clearly sexual scene, can have no other mean- 
ing than that we have already learned to know. Certain species 
of animals play a large role as sexual symbols in dreams and in 
the psychoses. One patient I knew, who was very erotic and who 
suffered from hebephrenia gave the name of " beauty beasts " 
(Schonheitstiere) to the animals that appeared to her in hallu- 
cinations. A euphemism which is still not fully free from the 
erotic ! 

Riklin has accumulated excellent examples of this kind from 
the legends of different peoples. Finally I may refer to the 
symbolism in the novel of Jensen analyzed by Freud. 



IV 

Analysis of the Prometheus Saga 

Through the most different kinds of human phantasy the same 
symbolism runs which in a very substantial part is sexual. I 
turn now to the analysis of the myth. While we will only busy 
ourselves with the symbolism in its construction it presents still 
other important analogies with dreams. 

According to the view of the Greeks Prometheus created man 
and then robbed the gods of fire in order to bring it to his crea- 
tures. That man was created by a higher being is an idea which 
we meet among the most varied peoples. Although perfectly 
familiar to us it is still lacking an explanation. The account of 
the creator of man as not a true god-head and also not a man, 
who robbed the gods of fire and thus came in conflict with Zeus, 
is likewise in need of explanation. Kuhn is the founder of com- 
parative mythology ; to him the science is indebted for a number 
of fundamental studies of different mythological figures. It 
follows from these that certain of the common traditions of the 
Indogermanic folks are contained in the Indian Vedas in much 
more original form than they were known from the Greek and 
other origins. So he succeeded in tracing the figures of Athene, 
the Centaurs, Orpheus, Wotan, and other gods and heroes of 
the Greek and Germanic myths, to Vedic origins and thereby has 
been able to give the true explanation of the sense of the myths. 
Of greater significance for mythological research is his compre- 
hensive treatise "tjber die Herabkunft des Feuers und des Got- 
tertranks" (1859, ^^w edition 1886). His footsteps were forth- 
with followed by other investigators as Delbriick, Steinthal, 
Cohen, Roth, Max Miiller, Schwarz. I give in the following 

27 



28 DREAMS AND MYTHS 

only the most important results of Kuhn's researches, confining 
myself moreover to technical grounds preliminarily of the myth 
of the origin of the fire. I will confine myself in part to the re- 
sume of Kuhn's work which SteinthaP^ has given in a critical 
review; I have also made use of the general remarks which 
Cohen^^ has added to Kuhn's deductions. It is naturally not 
possible in the compass of this presentation, to completely present 
for the several points of the analysis, the proofs of comparative 
philology and mythology. In this respect I must refer to the 
original as well as to the two works of Steinthal and Cohen 
named. 

So far the investigations give us the explanation that all Indo- 
germanic peoples produced fire by rubbing. We can point to this 
method still in historical times ; even the technical expressions be- 
longing to it are known to us. Among people of other races poor 
in culture we still meet to-day the same procedure. How man 
came to generate fire through friction may remain uncertain. 
According to Kuhn nature may have been the teacher of man: 
he might have observed in the primitive forest, how a dry twig of 
an ivy, moved by the wind, was rubbed in the hollow of a branch 
and then broke out in flames. PescheP^ has already drawn at- 
tention to the improbability of this explanation; he thinks that 
by boring and other mechanical occupations man must have 
learned to know of the heating of two objects by friction, besides 
he observed similar occurrences in nature. 

The primitive means of producing fire consisted of a stick of 
hard wood and a piece of soft wood which contained a hollow. 
Through turning and boring movements of the stick in the hole 
the wood was set on fire. Fire created in this way shows the 
characteristic that after a time it goes out ; it must then be called 

^Steinthal, "Die Prometheussaga in ihrer urspriinglichen Gestalt," 
Zeitschrift. f. Volkerpsychologie und Sprachwissenschaft, Bd. 2, 1862. 

^ Cohen, H,, " Mythologische Vorstellungen von Gott und Seele," 
Zeitschrift. f. Volkerpsychologie und Sprachwissenschaft, Bd, 5 u. 6, 1868 
u. 1869. 

*• Peschel, " Volkerkunde," 6. Aufl., Leipzig, 1885, S. 141. 



ANALYSIS OF THE PROMETHEUS SAGA 2g 

forth anew. Man made the same observation, however, about 
one other fire — namely, the heavenly. In the heavens the fire of 
the sun appears to him daily, warming and lighting; sometimes 
he saw further rays of fire descending from heaven, lighting and 
burning. The heavenly fire also goes out after a while. So 
probably there must be something in heaven that burns and goes 
out. According to a very ancient idea the Indo-germanic races 
beheld in the cloud formations a tree — the earthly ash which we 
meet again and again in the most varied myths. The wood of 
the ash serves man as a means of making fire. When they saw 
the fire of heaven there the wood of the heavenly ash was burn- 
ing. The lightning darting from heaven to earth was fire com- 
ing down from the ash. From this arose the belief that the 
earthly fire was fire descended from heaven. The quick move- 
ment of the lightning through the air called to mind the flight of 
birds; from this arose the further assumption, a bird, which 
nested in the heavenly ash has brought the heavenly fire to earth. 
In the myths of different peoples and at different times it is the 
eagle, the hawk, or the woodpecker, that have been assigned this 
role. Certain kinds of trees, for example, the mountain ash 
which bears red fruit, thorns and feathery leaves serve as a trans- 
formation of the lightning bird. In these parts are recognized 
again the color, claws, and feathers of the birds. 

To the heavenly and earthly fire there was added in the ideas 
of the Indo-germanic myths a third kind, the fire of life. We 
touch here on the same analogy that made possible the identifi- 
cation of the heavenly and the earthly fires. The life fire must 
also be awakened. So long as it dwells in the body the body is 
warm. And like every fire the life-fire also goes out. The most 
apt analogy lay, however, in the production and the preparation 
of the fire. As fire is produced by the boring of a stick in a 
disc of wood so is human life created in the mother's womb. 
Many are the evidences for this conception in myths and in 



30 DREAMS AND MYTHS 

language. I will only mention here that the two principal parts 
of the primitive apparatus for the production of fire often bear 
the names of the male and female genitals. To such an extent 
was this view of the people transferred to flesh and blood. 
Even more: We find the same identification in the Semitic lan- 
guages. In Hebrew the expression for male and female sig- 
nifies exactly the borer and the hollowed. 

So now the origin of the life-fire, the creation of man, like- 
wise is transferred above to the ash. From it comes mankind 
like the fire; from it also man, like the fire, is brought by a 
bird to the earth. The stork that brings the children. 

A later epoch, which so to say, settles like a new stratum 
in the myths, concerns the man-like gods. It retains the old anal- 
ogy of fire and life ; only it gives it a new form : the god of fire 
is also the man-god. In the Vedas we meet a god Agni (agni = 
Latin ignis, fire), who incorporates fire, light, sun and lightning, 
at the same time, however, he is also the first man. In the 
myths of different peoples Agni is also at the same time the light- 
ning-bird. Picus, the woodpecker, was in the oldest Latin myths 
the fire-bird, lightning and man. A Latin version of the myth 
makes him the first king of Latium; besides, however, he re- 
mained the tutelar god of lying-in women and sucklings — con- 
sequently the god of life. 

With the increasing personification of the gods everything 
in nature became either a product or an attribute of the gods. 
So fire was now no longer a god but was produced by a god. A 
god starts the sun fire, which had expired, by boring in the sun 
disc anew each morning; he produces lightning when he casts a 
dart in the storm clouds. As with the heavenly fire so with the 
earthly, it must always be generated anew. When the fire goes 
out Agni has disappeared; he must have hidden himself. As he 
hides himself in heaven in a cloud (the cloud tree), so he hides 
himself on earth in the wooden disc, from which he can be called 



ANALYSIS OF THE PROMETHEUS SAGA 3 I 

forth by boring and rubbing. Here we meet a new personage 
in the myth, whose oldest name (in the Vedas) is Matarichvan. 
Matarichvan brings Agni, who is hidden in the clouds or in the 
woods, back to earth. According to another version he finds 
Agni in a cavern. He brings to man the light and warmth which 
he needs to live. His name signifies " he who swells or works in 
the mother " — that is again lightning or the boring stick. 

Matarichvan, the fire-bringer, corresponds in the Greek myth 
to Prometheus. In historical times the name Prometheus, which 
has experienced various changes, has been interpreted as " fore- 
thought," As an older form he is, among other things, referred 
to as " Pramantha." This name has a double meaning. It sig- 
nifies first the " forth-rubber," that is, one who through rubbing 
brings something forth. 

Through rubbing he brings the fire forth and generates man. 
Here it is to be noted that "matha" signifies the male genitals. 
The second meaning of Pramantha is the fire-robber. Close to 
the idea that Prometheus-Pramantha created the fire, is the other 
idea, that he — like Matarichvan — brought or stole the fire from 
heaven. He concealed the sparks in a shrub, that is, one of the 
sort of wood that serves for the creation of fire. 

In the myth we thus see fire represented in three different 
forms: as fire (fire-god), as fire-maker (or rubber, or fetcher) 
and finally as man. Man in the myth, is in so far also identical 
with fire, as the first man sometimes springs from fire, and be- 
cause man conceals within himself the fire of life. 



Infantilism in Individual and Folk Psychology. Wish- 
fulfillment IN Dream and Myth 

The short presentation, which I have made, is capable of 
giving only an incomplete idea of the multiplicity of sources which 
meet in the Prometheus saga. Their investigation was of the 
greatest scientific significance. They led to a break with the 
common view that the myth is a figurative expression of a philo- 
sophical or religious thought. Kuhn sought to show that every 
myth rests on a natural intuition. He pointed out that every myth 
outside of the content which is evident at once from the meaning 
of the words, has still a latent content, which is concealed behind 
symbolical expressions.^^ Whoever is acquainted with Freud's 
method of dream interpretation and the dream-theory, which was 
derived from it, will observe, that between Kuhn's interpretation 
of the Prometheus saga and Freud's interpretation of dreams far- 
reaching analogies exist. When to two structures which out- 
wardly show such important differences, as is the case with 
dreams and myths, the same methods of investigation are appli- 
cable, one is able to see therein a new confirmation of the hypoth- 
esis that behind outer differences there lies concealed an inner 
relationship. The example of the Prometheus saga will serve to 
demonstrate the psychological relationship of dreams and myths. 

The myth of Prometheus, so far as it occupies us here, may 

^Kuhn is not afraid to speak openly of the sexual character of these 
symbols. That such a doctrine should be attacked as unscientific and im- 
moral we have, in our day, sufficiently endured. Steinthal undertakes, in 
his work already cited (p. 3), to defend Kuhn on both sides. I cannot 
refrain from quoting his words here, because they appear to be directed 
prophetically against the opponents of the Freudian teachings. "When 
with the exactness, and the conscientiousness of a judge, the importance 
of each reason is examined and without persuasion is presented ungar- 
nished and the conclusions always drawn with the greatest caution, it 
merits not only scientific but moral recognition." 

32 



INFANTILISM IN INDIVIDUAL AND FOLK PSYCHOLOGY 33 

be told in a few words. The significance, which the true sense of 
these few words reveals to us, takes a very much greater space. 
Quite similar relations exist in the case of dreams. A short 
dream contains much more than we could guess from the simple 
relation. In the same way as Freud has established in dreams, so 
in myths, there is found concealed behind the manifest content 
a latent content. For the discovery of the latter a method of 
interpretation is needed. This must, the same as in the interpre- 
tation of dreams, discover the ideas and feelings of the whole 
material, which have found expression in the myth. 

The more or less important differences of the latent and mani- 
fest dream content explains why the dreamer only seldom is able 
to understand his own dream. He interprets the dream to him- 
self as senseless, absurd, and disputes probably the idea that the 
dream contains any sense at all ; if he tries really to penetrate the 
significance of his dream he gives an insufficient explanation be- 
cause it only takes into consideration the manifest content. It is 
not otherwise with the folks ! They likewise do not understand 
the latent content of their myths. They give an insufficient ex- 
planation of them. An example will easily explain this. The 
dreams of the death of near relatives, with which we have already 
occupied ourselves, are, by the persons in which they occur, prob- 
ably without exception falsely interpreted. Quite similarly the 
Greeks mistook the true meaning of the Prometheus saga. They 
misunderstood even the meaning of the name Prometheus. We 
will return to this point. 

The fact that the myth-creating people suppress their own men- 
tal product as the dreamer does in his dream requires an explana- 
tion. Freud gives as the key to this riddle : " The dream is a frag- 
ment of the repressed life of the infantile psyche." This assertion is 
not understandable without something further. Freud comes to his 
view in the following way. Our mind preserves far more impres- 
sions than our memory is commonly aware of. Especially do we 



34 DREAMS AND MYTHS 

"forget" readily such reminiscences as are associated with a pain- 
ful feeling-tone. They are, however, not absolutely obliterated, 
but only the capacity for voluntary reproduction is withdrawn. 
We have already come to know this process of repression into the 
unconscious. Especially do we tend to put out of our conscious- 
ness wishes that remain unfulfilled or are unfulfillable on account 
of the painful feeling-tone that is attached to them. Dreams 
receive a large and essential portion of their material from 
repressed ideas; only a smaller and less important part of the 
dream content is actually of recent occurrence. The same thing 
holds true when the activity of consciousness is disturbed by 
pathological processes. Then also old reminiscences rise up out 
of the depths of repression. We may observe this especially well 
in hysteria and dementia prsecox. The idea of repression is indis- 
pensible for the explanation of the most various pathological 
symptoms. The repressed memories may originate at any age. 
The results of careful analysis have succeeded in showing, how- 
ever, that the ultimate basis of a dream or of the symptom of a 
given mental disease, is a reminiscence of childhood. The child 
fulfills his wishes, the real, unrepressed ones even, so far as they 
are not realized, in day and dream phantasies. In later years 
these phantasy activities are, by preference, relegated to sleep. 
In the dream the adult preserves, not only the childhood species of 
thinking but also the object of the infantile thoughts. The infan- 
tile wishes and events rest in the bosom of the unconscious, only 
apparently forgotten. They wait here, in a way, until the indi- 
vidual has an experience which is analogous to an infantile occur- 
rence. Then that which is analogous will become assimilated to 
the earlier experience. So the infantile memory experiences a 
reinforcement in the unconscious. When it attains a certain in- 
tensity it expresses itself in normal individuals in dreams, in 
neurotic or psychotic individuals in the symptoms of the disease. It 
needs two conditions : a lowering of conscious activity as occurs in 



INFANTILISM IN INDIVIDUAL AND FOLK PSYCHOLOGY 35 

dreams and certain pathological states, and an actual occasion. 
In general one is not inclined to concede to infantile occurrences 
and wishes such comprehensive results, as I do with Freud. One 
will object that the infantile interests are suppressed by others in 
later life. Still that is, as will be shown, only on apparent coun- 
ter argument. The significance of infantile emotions and remi- 
niscences for normal and pathological psychology was never esti- 
mated at its true value until the appearance, in 1895, of the 
" Studien iiber Hysterie " by Breuer and Freud. It remains the 
service of these two authors to have directed attention to the 
significance of infantile reminiscences. Freud still further elabo- 
rated these teachings in the following years. The view of the 
significance of infantile events has, to be sure, experienced sub- 
stantial alterations, which, however^ in no way means an abandon- 
ment of the doctrine of psychic infantilism. That the early 
infantile reminiscences exercise so great an influence on the 
psychic development of the individual we may perhaps be able 
to explain. If the child has many experiences which are deter- 
mined by outside causes, and so are not grounded in his indi- 
viduality, yet there are still others that proceed directly from his 
own characteristics. In two small contributions^* I have attempted 
to show this for certain sexual happenings in childhood. We can 
formulate the results in general as follows : a part of the happen- 
ings, and probably the most affective, the child owes to his inher- 
ent, inborn emotivity. In this way it comes about that the child 
in early youth has not yet learned to subordinate, on ethical 
grounds, certain wishes, that his nature is not yet blunted but is 
alive to all impressions, that it therefore reacts with greater and 
less restrained intensity. 

The memories of childhood assimilate later. Namely, the 
repressed infantile wishes establish themselves in the later life. 

" Abraham, " t)ber die Bedeutung sexueller Jugendtrauman f iir die 
Symptomatologie der Dementia praecox," Zentralblatt fiir Nervenheil- 
kunde und Psychiatrie, 1907, and " Das Erleiden sexueller Traumen als 
Form infantiler Sexualbetatigung." 



36 DREAMS AND MYTHS 

I am reminded here of the infantile preference of the son for the 
mother and his rivalry with the father as well as the wish asso- 
ciated with this feeling. An actual occasion wakes again this 
memory of childhood. Now it finds expression in a dream. 
This example stands for many that serve to explain the sense 
which Freud gives to the dream as a fragment of the repressed 
life of the infantile psyche. 

In the dream the infantile phantasy activity, together with its 
objects, continues to live. The analogy of the myth with the 
dream discloses itself now at a stroke. The myth springs from 
a period, in the life of a people, long gone by, which we may 
designate as the childhood of the race. The authority for this 
comparison is easy to show. An expression, which Freud makes 
use of in the " Traumdeutung " illustrates this well. Freud des- 
ignates the period of childhood, which we remember only indis- 
tinctly, as the prehistoric time in the history of the individual. 
Although our reminiscences of that time are very indefinite, still 
they have not passed by without leaving impressions behind. 
The wishes that lay in our heart at that time and which we at 
best remember in an imperfect way, are not wholly effaced, but 
only repressed and continue to live in our dream phantasies. All 
this takes place also in the myths. They originate in the prehis- 
toric times of the race, and have come down to us from the indefi- 
nite traditions. They contain memory rests from their childhood. 
Can the wish- fulfillment theory of dreams also be transferred to 
myths ? 

I maintain this and formulate my view, in harmony with 
Freud's teachings in regard to dreams, as follows : The myth is a 
fragment of the repressed life of the infantile psyche of the race. 
It contains (in disguised form) the wishes of the childhood of 
the race. 

We have already found important evidence for this view by 
comparing certain myths with '* typical" dreams. We saw that 



INFANTILISM IN INDIVIDUAL AND FOLK PSYCHOLOGY 3/ 

in the CEdipus saga, as in certain dreams, the infantile sexuality 
found expression. From the sexual transference of the libido of 
the son on to the mother arose wishes which as with many others 
availed themselves of repression. Education is nothing but a 
forced, systematic repression of inborn tendencies. 

In the youth of a race, when more natural relations still pre- 
vail, when the conventions have not yet assumed rigid forms, 
every tendency could be realized. At a later time they were sup- 
pressed by a process which we can designate in the individual as 
repression. But they do not die out wholly but are retained in 
the myths. This process, for which I might propose the name of 
" mass repression," is the reason the people no longer understand 
the original meaning of their myths quite as we can not under- 
stand our dreams without some explanation.^^ 

It appears that a people whose myths are concerned with its 
earliest childhood express in them such wishes as they have been 
accustomed to repress most strongly. Let us consider the biblical 
description of Paradise! Freud has aptly characterized it :" Para- 
dise is nothing but the mass phantasy of the childhood of the 
individuals." Genesis relates of Adam and Eve, with special 
emphasis, that they were naked and were not ashamed. We know 
that the custom of the Jews rigidly required the clothing of the 
body. The infraction of this custom was always especially cen- 
sured in the biblical stories. We find again, in a typical dream, 
a parallel to the mass phantasy of the nakedness of the first man. 
We all occasionally dream that we are going about in very defi- 
cient clothing, even moving about among people, who, however, 
take no notice of our state. / The affect of anxiety which accom- 
panies this dream corresponds to the strong repression of the in- 
fantile wish to show ourselves naked before others. Freud has 

® That a people no longer understands its own myths can not be due 
to their having taken them over partly from other peoples. They could 
only have taken them over because they found their own complexes in 
them. These, however, were just the ones repressed. Besides each people 
alter myths they take over ; they must then at least understand the meaning 
of the alteration; this is, however, not the case. 



38 DREAMS AND MYTHS 

brought a great amount of evidence to show that in this dream 
we are dealing with an infantile nakedness phantasy ("Traum- 
deutung," S. i66 f.). He recalls in this connection, that children 
take great pleasure in showing themselves naked before other chil- 
dren or adults or exhibiting before themselves. There are people, 
in whom these infantile adnexa of the sex instinct are retained in 
abnormal strength and the normal activity is fully pressed aside: 
they are the exhibitionists. 

The very rigorous ethics of the Jews in regard to the sexual 
relation demanded that the mass phantasy of nakedness be trans- 
ferred to the earliest childhood of man. The Greeks, who were 
ashamed of nakedness in a much narrower sense, did not need to 
go back so far. Freud has shown that the saga of Odysseus and 
Nausicaa deals with the same theme. He therefore puts it par- 
allel to the above-mentioned nakedness dreams. 

The Greek Prometheus saga corresponds to the biblical story 
of the creation of the first man. As we saw, it is differentiated 
from it by the lack of one of the analogous ingredients of the 
nakedness phantasy. It contains, on the contrary, the story of 
the stealing of fire, for which the biblical presentation offers no 
correlate. We have now to discover what repressed mass phan- 
tasies or wishes find expression in the Greek anthropogeny, espe- 
cially also, of what significance, in this respect, the robbery of 
the fire is. In order to attain this object we must first consider 
certain general characteristics of myths, and for the explanation 
of these turn back again to Freud's theory of dreams. 

Freud declares every dream to be egoistic. We have to learn 
to suppress all our egoistic tendencies. The majority, on social, 
familiar, and other grounds, we must by preference repress. 
When now, as in dreams, the unconscious comes to expression, 
the repressed emotions break through. Surely they must care- 
fully disguise themselves ; for their frank entrance would be pre- 
vented by the censor. The egoism of the dream expresses itself 



INFANTILISM IN INDIVIDUAL AND FOLK PSYCHOLOGY 39 

by the invariable appearance in the central point of the dream of 
the dreamer himself. This is certainly not meant in the sense 
that the dreamer always sees himself in the dream as the center 
of the dream process. Very often he follows, so to speak, the 
drama only as an onlooker. Then, however, he represents, 
through the actor, the title role. This role falls to a person who 
has a characteristic, an occurrence, or something in common with 
the dreamer. The dreamer identifies himself with the principal 
personage in the dream. So the appearance is brought about 
that the principal personage of the dream also occupies the most 
prominent place in the dream. As a matter of fact the identi- 
fication signifies they are the same — " just as " one another 
(Freud, " Traumdeutung," S. 216). But "just as" cannot be 
expressed in the language of dreams ; the dream can only express 
comparison by replacing a person or an object by an analogy. 
That the object of the dream — a wish- fulfillment — is likewise 
throughout egoistic, we have often established in the discussions 
of Freud's explanations above. In the same sense are those other 
psychic structures egoistic which we have placed parallel with the 
dream. It would lead too far, at this point, to show this for the 
hysterical dream-states. The relation shows clearer in the chronic 
psychoses with delusional formation. The psychosis is also 
throughout egoistic. The patient is, under all cimcumstances, the 
central point of his delusional system. He is exposed to in- 
trigues, injurious influences, persecutions of all sorts which are 
put in operation against him from all sides. His co-workers wish 
him out of the way, a detective is watching him. He is the one, 
single, righteous person against whom the world of unrighteous- 
ness and jealousy has declared war. He has placed himself in 
opposition to the world. So every delusion of persecution con- 
tains implicitly a delusion of grandeur. Psychiatry, in general, 
cares to speak of delusions of grandeur only when a special gran- 
diose idea is expressed. We would do better to speak in a general 



40 DREAMS AND MYTHS 

sense of a grandiose complex. When we listen to an insane per- 
son relate his delusional system we are reminded by its structure 
of the sagas of mythology, which have been constructed about 
special figures. The delusional system of an insane person is 
like a myth in which he celebrates his own greatness. There are 
insane persons who assert themselves to be some particular, fa- 
mous, historical person, perhaps Napoleon or Bismarck. Such a 
patient, who finds some analogy between himself and Napoleon, 
identifies himself with Napoleon without further ceremony — 
quite as we are wont to do in dreams. The psychoses have no 
expression for *'just as" quite as the dream. If we go a little 
further into detail we find a wealth of proofs for the correctness 
of this comparison. Insane persons, for example, commonly 
refer their delusional ideas, especially their grandiose ideas, back 
to their childhood. I refer especially to the delusional ideas of 
birth because they are of great interest for the further analysis 
of the Prometheus saga. Cases of this sort are known to every 
psychiatrist. A patient asserts, perhaps, that the people whose 
name he bears are not his true parents ; he is, as a matter of fact 
the son of a princely person, there is a mysterious reason why he 
should be put aside and on that account he was given over, when 
a child, to be cared for by his " parents." His enemies maintain 
the fiction that he is of low birth in order to suppress his just 
claim to the crown or great wealth. 

This delusion of birth reminds us again of the infantile day 
dreams in which the boy is a prince or king, and through his 
victories casts the fame of everybody else in the shade. The wish 
to become something great is satisfied by the phantasy of royal 
descent. For in the childish phantasy a prince is predestined, for 
no other reason than that he is a prince, to arouse the admiration 
of all the world. The object of desire of the mental stirrings of 
the child is to become great — in the double sense of the word. It 
appears to me that whoever, as adult, always succeeds or imagines 



INFANTILISM IN INDIVIDUAL AND FOLK PSYCHOLOGY 4 1 

himself to succeed has born a grandiose complex in his breast 
in his childhood. The phantasies, which he invented in his youth 
he forgets later. The complex, however, in whose service these 
phantasies stand, does not die before the man. If he sees, in his 
advanced age, his ambitions unfulfilled, then, the mentally sound 
as well, commonly transfer their wish-fulfillment back to child- 
hood and become laudator temporis acti. 

This grandiose complex is peculiar to the childhood of a race 
quite in the same way as to the childhood of the individual ; also 
in the "historical" period of a race it does not vanish without 
leaving traces, as we have also been able to establish for the indi- 
vidual. Also in myths an identification takes place. The race 
identifies itself with the principal figure of the myth. "Just as" 
is also absent in myths.^^ 

Every race has associated the beginning of their existence with 
a myth, which reminds us in a surprising way of the delusions of 
descent of the insane. Every race will descend from its god head, 
be "created" by him. Creation is nothing but procreation di- 
vested of the sexual. This appears with wonderful clearness 
from Kuhn's interpretation of the Prometheus saga. Prometheus 
" creates " the man ; he is, however, if we search his history, the 
borer, generator and at the same time the fire-god. We learn 
from the Vedas of different sects of priests who were in the ser- 
vice of the fire-god Agni and derived their descent from fire! 
The names of these priestly sects (Angirasen, Bhrgu, etc.) mean 
either fire or flame. So man deduces his descent from the gods, 
whom he himself created, from fire, that he gave to god, from the 
world-ash, from which the fire came to him. Askr, the ash, in 
the northern sagas is the ancestor of the human species. So man, 
in the early times, projected his grandiose complex into the 
heavens. What unworthy successors are our insane who are sat- 

^ Steinthal (" Die Saga von Samson," Zeitschrift fur Volkerpsychol 
und Sprachwissenschaft, Bd. 2, 1862) declares, that the word gleichwie 
(just as) has brought about the greatest revolution in the mental develop- 
ment of mankind. 



42 DREAMS AND MYTHS 

isfied with descent from a great person of this earth, and we our- 
selves, we do the same things in our childhood phantasies ! 

The Prometheus saga is also rich in examples of identification. 
It is only necessary to recall the identification of borer, lightning 
and man. If man is generated by god then is he, also, godly or 
the god is human. Man identifies himself then with the god- 
head. So it is in the older forms of the Prometheus saga; it is 
only in later times that creation has been set in place of procreation. 

The old testament story of creation is only apparently an 
exception. In the story of Genesis the man surely does noj: de- 
scend from his divine creator. God creates man after his image ; 
here In the manifest content of the story a similarity occurs in 
place of an identification. The descent of Israel is derived from 
the patriarchs. The researches of comparative mythology have 
disclosed, however, that the patriarchs are the changed forms of 
a heathen god world. So Israel originally derived its descent by 
divine causes. This view must adjust itself later to monotheism. 
Now the old family gods appear in the service of the single god. 
The national pride must be satisfied by bringing the patriarch into 
a specially close relation with their god. God appears in personal 
relations with them, speaks to them and makes agreements with 
them, which are binding on their descendants ; these feel therefore 
again that their god is very near. 



VI 

The Effect of the Censor in Dreams and Myths. The 
Work of Condensation 

We have come to know already of the idea of the censor. 
While in the dream the practiced repression of consciousness is 
removed, still the unfettered wishes are prevented from open ex- 
pression. The censor does not permit the repressed idea expres- 
sion by clear, unequivocal words, but compels it to appear in a 
strange dress. By means of the dream distortion the true (latent) 
dream content is transposed into the manifest content. The 
latent dream thoughts already formed in the waking state are, as 
Freud has shown, on the way to becoming unconscious thought 
activities. The dream makes no new thoughts, it moulds over 
those formed in the waking state according to the demands of the 
censor. Freud distinguishes four ways in which this work is 
accomplished. We have now to prove whether similar relations 
exist in myths, whether a censor works here also and whether the 
myth makes use of the same means of presentation for evasion 
as the dream. We can here also use the Prometheus saga as a 
paradigm, but will draw upon other myths at certain places in the 
compass of our consideration. 

Of the various processes of the dream work let us consider 
first " condensation." We have already learned to know it in the 
Prometheus saga but are then no nearer its understanding. Its 
surprise is, that the Prometheus saga, which appears so simple at 
first glance, in its few words gives expression to a great number 
of ideas. The latter form, as we have already seen, the latent 
content of the myth. One element of the manifest dream content 
very commonly contains not one but several dream thoughts. The 
relation is quite similar in myths. If the few words of the saga 

43 



44 DREAMS AND MYTHS 

are to contain all these thoughts, as Kuhn's work has shown us, 
each word, so to say, must be " over determined," quite as it is in 
the dream. Dream interpretation is able to bring proof that a 
person appearing in the dream may represent several related reali- 
ties. For example, it is not rare that a dream person may have 
the face of one person known to the dreamer and the rest of the 
body of another acquaintance. The dreamer thus brings these 
two persons in relation to one another probably because they 
accord in some important point. Every occurrence of the dream 
can likewise be numerously determined. In dream analysis we 
must therefore always take note of ambiguity; each word of the 
dream story may hold a double or more numerous meaning. 

The elements of the myth, like the elements of the dream, are 
also overdetermined. The Greek Prometheus saga owes its form 
to a very active process of condensation. The form of Pro- 
metheus, as we have found by analysis, is condensed from three 
views. According to the first he is the fire god, according to the 
second he is the fire, according to the third he is man. From 
these ideas the saga of the robbery of the fire was condensed. 
SteinthaP^ has put together, with great pregnancy, this extremely 
important conclusion of Kuhn's analysis : " After the fire god as 
man has come down from heaven he brings himself as man or as 
god himself, as god or as a divine element on the earth, and be- 
stows himself as an element in himself as mortal." 

To one who is accustomed to analyze dreams with the help of 
Freud's method the inner relationship of dreams and myths, on 
the basis of the common process of condensation, will be apparent. 
In apparently insignificant details of the myth he will distinguish 
condensations, quite analogous to what he has already met in 
dreams. Kuhn's analysis brings out for nearly every element of 
the Prometheus saga, for every single symbol, the proof of mul- 
tiple determinations. I only call attention to how, for example, 

'"Steinthal, "Die Prometheussaga in ihrer urspriinglichen Gestalt," 
Seite 9. 



EFFECT OF THE CENSOR IN DREAMS AND MYTHS 45 

in the heavenly bird the most varied symbolic functions are 
condensed. 

The strange neologisms of the dream have to thank the work 
of condensation for their occurrence. Freud gives ("Traum- 
deutung," S. 202 f., as well as in other places) interesting exam- 
ples of this kind as well as their interpretation. The insane 
furnish examples of neologisms of a quite similar kind.^® The 
normal man also does the same thing while awake when he " mis- 
speaks." Examples of this can be found especially in Freud's 
" Psychopathologie des Alltagslebens." I will quote only an ex- 
ample from those that can be found there.^^ 

" A young man said to his sister : ' I have quite fallen out with 
D., I do not greet her any more.' She answered: 'Altogether a 
fine (Lippschaft).' She intended to say relative (Sippschaft) 
but she crowded together two different things in this error of 
speech, that her brother had begun a flirtation with the daughter 
of this family, and this called up that she had recently been en- 
gaged in a serious, illicit love affair (Liebschaft)." 

The same word condensations that we meet with in the normal 

individual's mistakes, in dreams, and also in the neologisms of 

the insane is offered us in the Prometheus saga. Pramantha 

(= Prometheus) produces by rubbing (Reiben) fire and . . . man; 

according to another idea he steals (raubt) the fire, in order to 

bring it to man. These two views are condensed in the name 

Pramantha. Pramantha signifies the "bringer forth" (Hervor- 

reibende), that is, producing by rubbing (Reiben), and at the 

same time the (fire) robber (Raubende). This condensation was 

made possible through the similarity in sound of the substantive 

matha (=the male genitals, compare the Latin mentula) and the 

verbal root math (=take, rob). There is still the double sense 

of Reiben (to rub) to be noted. 

^ Jun^, " Psychologic der Dementia praecox," Halle, 1907. 
^ Zweite Auflage, 1907, Seite 30 f . 



VII 

Displacement and Secondary Elaboration in Dreams and 

Myths 

Condensation explains, in the myth as in the dream, a great 
number of differences between the latent and manifest content. 
A second method, through which the unconscious leads to dream 
distortion, is called by Freud "displacement." This element of 
the dream work also finds its analogy in myths. From grounds, 
which will soon be evident, I will consider with displacement a 
third element of the dream work, " secondary elaboration." 

When we began our consideration of the analogies of dreams 
and myths it was incumbent upon us to first show the authority 
for such a procedure. We could easily dispose of two objections 
while a third we left preliminarily unsettled. To it we must now 
turn back. The myth, one may object, according to the results 
of recent investigations, has gone through significant changes, 
before it took the form, in which it has come to us, while the 
dream appears to be a very fugitive structure born only for the 
moment. That is only apparently so. The dream content is, as 
a matter of fact, likewise a long time in preparation. If we com- 
pare the life period of man with that of the race we find that 
dreams and myths have their roots in the prehistoric time. We 
saw that the elements of the dream were already formed in the 
waking state. Now let us add : The development of the dream is 
not closed with the awaking of the dreamer. The concurrence 
of the ideas and wishes of the dream with the censor continues. 
If we seek to call a dream back to memory, especially when we 
are telling it to another person, the censor undertakes additional 
changes, in order to make the dream distortion more complete. 

46 



DISPLACEMENT AND SECONDARY ELABORATION 47 

This is what Freud calls " secondary elaboration."^^ It is only 
a continuation of the work of displacement of the dream. Both 
processes are of the same nature and serve the same purpose. 
They displace content and affect of the dream. Those elements 
which possess prime significance in the dream thoughts play a 
more secondary role in the dream, while some unimportant inci- 
dent is treated with exaggerated importance. Thus there comes 
about, as Freud expresses it, a " transvaluation of all values " in 
the dream. The insignificant becomes instead the significant 
pushed into the focal point of interest, and the affect-tone bound 
up with the dream thoughts is displaced from the significant to 
the insignificant. Both repeat themselves once again in secondary 
elaboration. It is exactly the critical places of the dream that 
most quickly and definitely relapse into repression after waking, 
whereby their reproduction is rendered difficult. The affect also 
suffers once again thereby the former similar modification. 

When a complex of strong emotional value lays at the bottom 
of a dream, that complex — in the same or in a subsequent night 
— produces further dreams. These further dreams tend towards 
the same wish fulfillment as the first, they only draw within their 
reach new means of expression, other symbols, and new associa- 
tions. A strong complex may express itself for years in the form 
of a recurring dream. In this respect it is only necessary to 
remember the previously detailed treatment of the typical dreams, 
for example the typical infantile nakedness dream. Again the 
typical dream is the means of transition from the consideration 
of dreams to that of myths. Mutatis mutandis we recognize the 
same psychological process in that the same dream accompanies 
an individual through the different periods of his life and be- 
comes thereby gradually changed by the taking up of new ele- 

'°I note here only those expressions of secondary elaboration, which 
appear on trying to reproduce the dream ; these are of special significance 
for comparison with myths. As to the other results of secondary elabora- 
tion, which already during the dream influence its form, I will not dis- 
cuss them. 



48 DREAMS AND MYTHS 

merits, and that a myth suffers gradual modifications in the dif- 
ferent life periods of a race. 

Now the period of time in which a myth develops is naturally 
infinitely greater than for a dream. Further we can obtain, 
from a person whose dream we are interpreting, information 
about doubtful points. To analyze a myth, on the contrary, is 
extraordinarily difficult, because we are required to penetrate 
a psychological structure by comparison and combination, that 
originated thousands of years before. After so long a period of 
time it is only in a few especially favorable cases that it is pos- 
sible to ascertain, what share in the displacement work was due 
to the time in which the myth was fixed, and what to later times, 
in which it was passed by word of mouth from generation to 
generation. New generations had new views. So where a trans- 
mittal did not correspond to its views, that generation undertook 
a " secondary elaboration " of the myth. We should also not for- 
get what a wide reaching influence the myths of neighboring peo- 
ple have on the transmittal of racial myths. For all these reasons 
it would call for doing violence to the facts if we undertook, in 
myths, an artificial separation of diplacement and secondary 
elaboration. I leave it at times uncertain, when I speak here- 
after of the work of displacement in myths, whether I am deal- 
ing with a primary or a secondary displacement. 



VIII 

The Effect of Displacement in the Sagas of Prometheus, 
Moses, and Samson 

We have already repeatedly met with the effects of displace- 
ment in myths without having especially devoted our attention 
to it. The Greek Prometheus saga bears clear traces of the 
work of displacement. As we have learned from Kuhn's re- 
searches, this myth reaches back to a time in which the natural 
forces were not yet worshiped in the form of man-like gods. 
Agni and Matharichvan came into existence with the gradual per- 
sonification of the gods. The former was the fire god ; the latter 
the fire-boring-out god, who brought Agni back when he had 
hidden himself. The two figures are not separated originally; 
Matharichvan appears rather as another name for Agni and sepa- 
rates itself later from him as an independent being. 

Matharichvan, to whom the Greek Prometheus corresponds, 
was then properly the fire-bringer. In the Greek myth he became 
the fire-robber. He took the fire from heaven to man against 
the will of the gods and suffered punishment for doing it. Pro- 
metheus must thus be subordinated to the will of Zeus; therein 
lies the most important displacement of the saga. The original 
myth, according to which Matharichvan — Prometheus — brought 
Agni back, lacks the affect tone in the way of censure for this 
undertaking. The Greek version of the myth employs here an 
affect displacement. Prometheus, who sinned against the gods, 
becomes thus the representation of man who often enough has 
rebelled against the council of the gods. Through this trans- 
formation of the saga the original sense of the name Prometheus 
— Pramantha — was lost. The ancient, naive times had called 
him the generator, the borer. This view disappeared by re- 

49 



50 DREAMS AND MYTHS 

pression until the people had fully forgotten the meaning of the 
names. The meaning was still further modified and now he is 
interpreted as " forethought." Had he not brought his creatures 
fire and so honestly won such a name! The transformation of 
the name Pramantha into Prometheus and the associated change 
of meaning offers us a very instructive example of displacement. 
The process of displacement in the Prometheus saga gains 
considerable in interest if we turn our attention to that portion 
of Kuhn^s works not hitherto considered. Kuhn treats along- 
side of the myth of the origin of fire the one closely related to it 
of the origin of the nectar. I cannot go into the common origin 
of these myths here without departing too much from the theme. 
I will be satisfied therefore with one reference, that among other 
things has given occasion for the common origin of lightning 
and rain from the storm clouds, and reduced fire and nectar in the 
myth to a common origin. Our interest here is mostly a result of 
comparative mythology: That the Greek (and Indo-germanic) 
saga of Prometheus corresponds to the Moses of the Bible. If 
we compare the law-bringer Moses with the fire-bringer Pro- 
metheus on the basis of the Old Testament accounts and the 
presentation of ^Eschylus the two figures certainly appear to have 
very little in common. The story of Moses carries, however, as 
well as that of Prometheus, the traces of a considerable displace- 
ment. We must probably differentiate the old mythical Moses 
from the biblical. The biblical Moses ascends, like Prometheus, 
to heaven and brings the laws down — as he did the fire. Amidst 
thunder and lightning he ascends ; here the storm returns. It is 
probably also not an accident that the law was called "fiery." 
In general we see Moses as the true servant of this one God; 
while Prometheus comes in conflict with the gods through the 
robbery of the fire, Moses receives the law from the hand of God 
so that here a conflict is excluded. The rebellion of Moses 
against God is found in another place. The figure in the heathen 



EFFECT OF DISPLACEMENT IN SAGAS 5 I 

myths corresponding to Moses brings forth water from the 
clouds by means of lightning. Moses is identified with the 
analogue of the lightning or the borer of the heathen myth : with 
the rod, this always recurring symbol in numerous sagas. With 
this rod he struck water from the rock in the wilderness — 
against the command of the Lord (IV Mos., Kap. 20). 
Moses was punished for disobedience: He was not allowed to 
enter the promised land. Moses, therefore, did not steal the 
water, but he struck on the rock and called it forth. Accord- 
ing to the command of God he should have spoken to the rock; 
impatience rent him to strike the rock. The displacement is 
here extremely far reaching: It is not enough that Moses was 
a simple man, a servant of God — he did not even once commit 
a robbery, like Prometheus, but called forth the promised water 
in an over-hasty manner. And so Moses's guilt is displaced to a 
relatively insignificant sin. At the same time God's power is 
exalted in that he will not allow even a relatively insignificant sin 
to go unpunished. 

Here then is opened to us an interesting perspective on the 
origin of certain pathological ideas. We find a quite similar 
process of displacement, called by Freud " transposition," in the 
genesis of compulsive ideas. According to Freud's investigations 
compulsive ideas have their root in self reproaches of the patient, 
which relate to forbidden sexual activity. The patient tries to 
compensate by over-correction in other territories for what he, 
according to his view, has done that was sexually sinful, as if he 
had, as a matter of fact, in this indifferent territory, permitted 
himself to be at fault.^^ 

I must refer briefly to a nearly related process in the psychoses 
(dementia praecox, melancholia).^^ The delusions of sin of these 
patients can often be traced to self-reproaches of a sexual nature. 

'^I cannot, in this place, go into Freud's teachings on this point and 
refer to the " Sammlung kleiner Schriften zur Neurosenlehre." 
^ Abraham, " Das Erleiden sexueller Traumen," etc., 1907. 



52 DREAMS AND MYTHS 

Such patients sometimes displace the feeling of guilt from some 
sexual reminiscence onto any insignificant fault of another kind. 
They are by no means to be dissuaded from these ideas. If we 
turn to the Freudian view of these conditions the ground for the 
conduct of such patients is evident. They desire to put aside the 
feeling of guilt. 

Displacements, as shown in the story of Moses, we meet in 
the Old Testament in great number. We find even there many 
original heathen myths, which, as the race went more and more 
over to monotheism, were used for the service of the new religion 
and for this purpose had to suffer substantial displacement. That 
the transition to monotheism was effected only very gradually and 
by great struggles is testified to by all the historical books of the 
Old Testament. The gods or god-like beings of the old myths 
must come down from their high pedestal, must be satisfied with 
the role of men, and subordinate themselves to the one god. 
In some cases this displacement went so far, that the one-time 
god became as man a specially faithful follower, the chosen of 
the one god. The figures of the patriarchs and of Moses are 
products of this displacement process. For the study of the 
latter the saga of Samson lends itself especially well. We pos- 
sess a treatise on this subject from the master hand of H. Stein- 
thal.^^ I give here only some of its principal features because it 
leads to similar results as the analysis of the Prometheus saga. 

Samson, as can be seen from the etymology of his name, is the 
sun god of the old Semitic heathendom and corresponds to Her- 
cules of the Indo-germanic saga. He is also really the sun god 
or -heros; the Hercules saga resembles that of Samson in a 
number of important things. Samson is the sun god, with long 
hair like Apollo. He is the warming, generating god, the bless- 
ing giving sun ; in the summer he reaches the height of his power. 
So winter and night are naturally his adversaries ; they find their 

" Steinthal, " Die Sage von Samson," Zeitschr. fiir Volkerpsychol. und 
Sprachwiss., Bd. 2, 1862. 



EFFECT OF DISPLACEMENT IN SAGAS 53 

personification in the moon goddess. When in the evening the 
sun sets, then according to one of the ideas of the sun god held 
by many peoples, he flees before the pursuing moon goddess. 
Although he reaches his greatest strength in summer, he cannot 
enjoy it; for from the solstice he loses it again. He is subdued 
by the night and the winter goddess as a strong man is by a wife. 
Samson, the generating sun god, appears in the representation of 
the Book of Judges, weak as compared to his wife. It is very 
probable that Delilah is a transformation of the night and winter 
goddess. Samson loses his strength when he loses his hair; that 
is the sun god loses his rays. However, as the sun, after the ex- 
piration of winter gets back its strength, so the hair of Samson 
grows again, so that his strength again returns; only for a short 
time to be sure. For he sought death and found it at the feast 
that his enemies, the Philistines, celebrated in honor of their god, 
Dagon. Dagon, however, is the unfruitful god of the seas and 
the deserts, in the myth opposed to the sun god and therefore an 
unfriendly power. 

Samson, the hero and the sun god, kills himself. That is a 
feature, which we also find again in the related myths. In the 
biblical story the suicide of Samson besides occurring at the 
feast of Dagon occurs still a second time, certainly in a hardly 
recognizable form. The sun god unites within himself two op- 
posed tendencies. He is, on the one side, the warming, life pro- 
moting god, on the other side, the burning, unhappiness causing, 
consuming god. As the latter he is represented by the symbol 
of the lion; as a lion the sun reaches in summer its greatest 
strength. As Agni and Matarichvan originally were a single 
being, but later became forces opposed to one another, so also 
the consuming heat of the sun — under the symbol of the lion — 
comes to be split off from the blessing bringing sun god. Sam- 
son's first heroic deed, Hercules' first task, was the vanquishing 
of a lion. The good sun god killed the consuming god as a 
lion and therefore killed himself. 



54 DREAMS AND MYTHS 

An exceedingly distorting displacement has produced from 
the sun god the hero Samson consecrated by God. Only a few, 
of themselves alone not understandable remains of his original 
being still adhere to him : the strength, which reposes in the hair, 
the weakness as against the woman, the end by suicide. It was 
because of the long hair that Samson became, in the later saga, 
the Nazarite, the beloved of God, who freed his people from 
bondage. Here is probably the identity of Samson and Hercules 
with the Phonecian Meleager, who was a tutelar god of his people. 
How the sun god of the heathen times comes to be the god-or- 
dained hero is not cleared up in all its details ; that, however, such 
a transformation did take place, many sources of information 
demonstrate. Israel had fought with the Philistines for cen- 
turies and lost her freedom through these conflicts. The old 
sun god, who formerly as the god of fruitfulness, and as an 
enemy of consuming heat, represented a wish of the race as ful- 
filled, must now as a national hero bring another wish to fulfill- 
ment. Like Moses he came to the service of the one God and 
was chosen by God to serve his people. He does not appear as 
a leader but always alone as the sun wanders alone in the heavens. 
He alone fought the Philistines with the jaw bone of an ass; 
even when blinded he opposes himself to thousands of Philistines 
and takes them with him in death. 



IX 

The Means of Representation of the Myth 

After we have found again, in myths, the work of condensa- 
tion and displacement of dreams, there remains still another 
aspect of the dream work in which to seek for its analogy in 
myths. Not all ideas are, for the dream, immediately represent- 
able ; the same is true for the myth. Surely there exists a differ- 
ence : the dream dramatizes, while the myth bears the form of an 
epic. Notwithstanding, both are obliged to have the same re- 
gard for the technical representability of their material. The 
dream, for example, must find a figurative representation for the 
abstract. With this object turns of speech will, with preference, 
be taken literally. In one of the dreams reported by Freud, the 
dreamer, for example, wishes to express that a musician with 
whom she was in love towered (turmhoch) above all the others. 
In the dream she saw him in the concert hall standing on a 
tower (Turme) and directing from that point. The logical re- 
lations of our speech are also not representable as such, in the 
dream. We have already learned how the dream represents the 
very important relation "just as" by means of identification, and 
that in myths the same procedure is traceable. Another such 
relation : " either — or " is expressed in various ways in the dream. 
One method is, for example, the arranging in a row, of the differ- 
ent possibilities, that is, each is figuratively represented and then, 
according to choice, placed beside the other. One other way I 
will briefly call attention to. The dreamer expresses in different 
dreams the different possibilities characterized by either — or. 
The dreams of one night serve, according to experience, the same 
wish- fulfillment ; according to my own experience it appears to 
me that a series of dreams in the same night not seldom oppose 

55 



56 DREAMS AND MYTHS 

to one another the different possibilities of wish- fulfillment and 
so correspond with an either — or. In one case this explanation 
was especially clear. A woman, who a short time before her 
marriage, was in fear of opposition from different quarters, re- 
lated to me five dreams which all occurred the same night. I 
was able, by virtue of an exact knowledge of her life, to establish, 
that in the five dreams all the different future possibilities were 
realized. The dreamer, in each dream concealed her betrothed 
behind another person of her acquaintance who in one of the 
dreams was in a corresponding position. The rich utilization of 
infantile material was very interesting. Quite in the same way 
races proceed with their myths. Races also represent the same 
wish in different myths. We learn here one of the causes for the 
relationship in the contents of many myths. If a wish is espe- 
cially strong it finds expression in different myths. Each single 
representation takes a new position in reference to it, approaches 
it from a different side. One need only refer to the two accounts 
of creation that run side by side in the Bible. 

A close relationship between two elements of the dream is 
commonly expressed by both elements (or their symbols) being 
placed close together in the manifest content. We see the same 
thing in myths. In the Prometheus saga we find the borer always 
near by the disc or the wheel ; in Genesis we find the serpent and 
the apple quite as near one another. The Prometheus saga shows 
us further, very beautifully, how one person can be concealed in 
several symbols: Prometheus is borer and lightning. An ex- 
tremely interesting example of this kind we have met in the Sam- 
son saga. The suicide of the sun-god Samson is represented by 
Samson as sun-hero killing the sun-lion. 

The greatest claim is made on the technic of presentation by 
the avoidance of the censor. We have already spoken of the sym- 
bolic clothing. In the saga of the descent of the fire we find 
symbolic presentations especially for the male organ of generation 



THE MEANS OF REPRESENTATION OF THE MYTH 57 

and for the function of generation. We are reminded by it of 
dream symbolism. The borer, rod, or similar instrument is a com- 
mon symbol in dreams as the representative of the male sexual 
organs. The dreams of women, in which they are stabbed by a 
man, are plainly wish fulfilling. In other dreams a sword, or a 
tree, or other plant of appropriate form, appears as a symbol of 
the male. 

The feminine correlate is also formed in the saga. It is the 
sun's disc or its rim, or the cloud in the hollow of which moves 
Pramantha, or the thunder-bolt stirred up by the lightning; it is 
also obviously the cave in which Agni has hidden. 

Fire appears in three forms in the Prometheus saga : as heav- 
enly fire, as earthly fire, and as the fire of life. In the dream 
fire very often signifies the sexual fire, love. As Prometheus is 
the generating god so probably the love fire may come to be con- 
sidered as a fourth component. 



■m- 



X 

Wish-Fulfillment in the Prometheus Saga 

After having convinced ourselves that the dream censor and 
the dream work find their complete analogy in myths, let us turn 
back to the question of wish-fulfilling in the Prometheus saga. 
It is of importance to discover what is hidden behind the symbolic 
clothing. It will appear that on this track of our inquiry we can 
not do without the direction of Freud's procedure in the inter- 
pretation of dreams. 

The Greeks themselves made an experiment in this direction. 
The content of the saga had become for them unintelligible; the 
name of the hero easily permitted a little variation so that one 
could understand something by it. So Pramantha became " Fore- 
thought." Such a semi-divine figure one could — if the expres- 
sion be permissible— use very well. Its existence sets forth an 
actual wish of mankind through all time: a wish for a care-tak- 
ing being. In the explanation of the name " Forethought " there 
lies, without doubt, the expression of a wish. We know, how- 
ever, that this meaning of the myth is secondary, and that the 
symbolism of the Prometheus saga does not at all fit it. We are 
reminded of quite analogous relations in dream psychology. Not 
seldom, quite on the surface of a dream, a wish is distinguish- 
able at first glance. The dreamer, in such cases, is ready to 
acknowledge this wish as a fact. It is always a wholly unsophis- 
ticated wish ! One asks himself then, what object, in such a case, 
the dream work accomplishes, when the wish, for the veiling of 
which the dream work should serve, lies open as day. If we 
now apply an exact analysis to the dream, it will be noted, that 
behind the actual wish a repressed wish is hidden, which shows 
an analogy with it. The actual wish constructs, in a manner, the 

58 



WISH-FULFILLMENT IN THE PROMETHEUS SAGA $g 

outer layer of the dream ; under this lies a repressed wish. With 
this, however, the work of interpretation is not concluded. In 
many cases there is certainly a third layer. This deepest layer in 
the ^'am (as in the psychoses) is always constructed from the 
reminiscences of infantile wishes. 

Such a stratification one can establish in the Prometheus saga. 
We know from Kuhn's investigations that the oldest layer of the 
myth represents an identification of man with fire, the origin of 
man with the origin of fire. The second layer corresponds to a 
later view into which entered personal gods. In this layer of the 
myth the fire-god is at the same time man-god, by whom the man 
is begotten. In the third, the latest layer Pramantha is no longer 
the procreator but the creator of man and his " forethought." 

The wish phantasy contained in the last layer, which is quite 
clear, we have already considered. After the analogy of dreams 
we may expect that the two older layers also embody a wish. 
The wish of the second layer we know already. Man derives his 
origin from a divine being and consequently is himself divine. 
He identifies himself with Pramantha. We can show that a sim- 
ilar tendency expresses itself therein as in the childhood phan- 
tasies of the individual, which we derived from the existence of 
a grandiose complex. To be more precise, the wish of the sec- 
ond layer would be: We would like to originate from a divine 
being and be ourselves divine; each of us is a Pramantha. I 
show from this that this phantasy has an evident sexual com- 
ponent. If the sexual, in the second layer, constructs a relatively 
subordinate component, we however find in the deepest layer a 
clearly sexual content, a plain wish- fulfilling in the sexual sphere. 
The second layer is differentiated from the oldest by a far ad- 
vanced sexual repression. 

The symbolism of the deepest layer is evidently sexual; it 
gives expression to a grandiose complex. Man identifies his gen- 
erative power with the ability of the borer to produce fire in the 



60 DREAMS AND MYTHS 

wooden disc, with the effects of the borer of heaven — ^the light- 
ning. The oldest form of the Prometheus saga is an apotheosis 
of the human power of generation. 

We have taken the pains to show that the sexuality forms the 
most inner nucleus of the being of man. It is an old and widely 
diffused error that in respect to sex the child is wholly indifferent. 
I am not thinking here, naturally of cases of abnormally early 
sexual maturity. Especially through Freud's^* researches we 
are forced to conclude that there is a sexual activation already 
in early childhood, which surely is not consciously that to the 
child and which must be differentiated from the sexual activity 
of the mature, healthy individual. The desire is awakened very 
early in children to exhibit themselves, with which is bound up 
the curiosity in reference to the sex differences and procreation. 
Every child — some earlier, some later — asks: Where did I come 
from? What the child learns in this consideration is food for 
his phantasy. The interest in the sexual processes produces in 
the growing child a fixation of attention like nothing else. An 
unexpectedly received explanation has not infrequently resulted 
in violent emotional disturbances. So the first physiological signs 
of sexual maturity, which the child notices itself, not rarely calls 
forth anxiety and aversion. 

We have already repeatedly seen pathological phantasy for- 
mations grow out of infantile phantasies. We also found charac- 
teristic analogies between these pathological products and myths. 
The phantasies growing out of the childhood desire to show 
oneself and curiosity the physician meets quite commonly, if he 
penetrates the psychic life of neurotic and psychopathic persons 
by means of the psychoanalytic process. I refer, in this consider- 
ation, especially to Freud's^*^ analysis of a case of paranoid psy- 
chosis. Sexual curiosity is of extraordinary significance in the 
realm of the psychic phenomena of compulsion ; this is especially 

" " Drei Abhandlungen zur Sexualtheorie." 

* " Vgl. Kleine Schriften zur Neurosenlehre," Seite 124. 



WISH-FULFILLMENT IN THE PROMETHEUS SAGA 6 1 

SO for the compulsion to constantly inquire into the reasons for 
things. Patients with this peculiar affection must busy them- 
selves, against their will with transcendental questions such as the 
origin of God and of the world or they must rack their brains 
over the reason for this or that thing in the world being as it 
is and not some other way. A case of my own observation, which 
I will communicate here, will illustrate what significance the in- 
fantile exhibitionistic tendency in neurotically afflicted persons 
has for the explanation of this condition. 

The patient differentiates himself two kinds of compulsive 
appearances, first the compulsion to pray, second the compulsion 
to consider every object with the greatest care and then to spec- 
ulate on its origin, restoration, composition, etc. He stated that 
he had been subjected to this compulsion since his childhood. 
Often for a shorter or longer time it remitted but always recurred. 
Analysis disclosed that he had, upon numerous occasions, when 
he was a boy, tried to expose persons with whom he had shared 
the bedroom or the bed. His whole interest concentrated itself 
on the sight of the genitals and the buttocks, on the origin of 
children as well as the preceding processes. On account of the 
violent attempts by which he sought to satisfy this practically 
pathological curiosity, he passionately reproached himself and 
began to pray to God that he would allow him to become a good 
man. The prayer contained the character of the compulsions; 
he wrote bits of paper full of litanies and read them as often as 
he could. He had great anxiety lest he omit a word. With the 
prayer developed at the same time the compulsive consideration 
of objects. It has come about, therefore, that the patient has set 
about the study of all possible indifferent objects in place of the 
consideration, considered as sinful, of certain bodily parts. 
Therefore he is especially interested in the back side of objects 
and the process of their origin. Through reflection on the origin 
of indifferent objects he seeks to provide a counter-balance 



62 DREAMS AND MYTHS 

against the reflection on the origin of man. The affect of anxiety 
becomes, as always happens in such cases, " transposed "^^ to 
indifferent ideas. What every growing child in a high degree, 
and this boy in an abnormal degree, busies themselves with, is the 
same theme that in mythology is indicated by anthropogenesis. 

The creation of man, the origin of a new living being, offers 
so many mysteries, that these processes, on that account, from 
the beginning on, attract the special interest of men and give a 
great incentive to myth formation. In an age, from which nat- 
uralistic views are still remote, procreation must appear like 
magic. This supposition we can give weighty support. Every- 
where in mythology, in miracles, etc., the magic wand plays a 
great role. There can be no doubt ( for reasons which I can not 
discuss in this place) that the magic wand signifies the symbolic 
representation of the male genitals. A quite similar symbol, the 
rod boring in the wooden disc, is the nucleus of the oldest form 
of the Prometheus saga. I have, up to this point, not yet re- 
ferred to a very remarkable characteristic of the Prometheus 
saga: that it is a pure masculine saga. The procreating man 
appears in it as well in the form of a person (Pramantha) as 
also symbolically. The woman is only represented by the symbol 
of the wooden disc and in the saga is only casually mentioned. 
We had formerly reached the conclusion that the Prometheus 
saga, in its earliest form, was an apotheosis of the power of pro- 
creation. This view receives here a conclusive confirmation. 
The Prometheus saga, in its oldest form, had the tendency to 
proclaim the masculine power of procreation as a principle of all 
life. That is the sexual delusion of grandeur of all mankind 
even to the present day. 

*""Sammlung kleiner Schriften zur Neurosenlehre," especially page ii8. 



XI 

Analysis of the Myth of the Origin of Nectar 

The saga of the origin of fire, which we now rightly indicate 
as a saga of procreation, is closely bound up with the saga of the 
origin of the nectar of the gods. We have already referred to this 
but have not, up to this time, entered upon an analysis of this 
myth. From former experiences we may expect that two sagas 
which stand in close relations to one another will also agree in 
their tendencies. For the analysis of the nectar myth Kuhn's 
fundamental work serves us again as a guide. In certain places 
we certainly will have to travel our own path. 

Nectar was named amrita in the oldest Indian sources, in the 
later soma, in the Zendavesta haoma. The designations nectar 
and ambrosia are generally known from the Greek mythology. 
To the nectar are ascribed various wonderful, mysterious effects : 
it animates, it inspires, it confers immortality. The last attribute 
is clearly expressed in " amrita " and in the etymologically corre- 
sponding "ambrosia"; also a similar meaning is contained in 
"nectar." 

So far as our traditions reach back all peoples manufacture in- 
toxicating drinks, the use of which calls forth the well-known 
deceptive feelings. Man feels himself animated, inspired, ex- 
alted; at the same time the drink gives him an increased feeling 
of warmth and stirs up his sexual desires. The cult of Dionysus 
bears always at the same time, an erotic character. Drink thus 
calls forth fire in man, in a double sense: Warmth and the fire 
of love. Man produces intoxicating drink by crushing certain 
kinds of plants. These appear in the myths as soma plants. 
Of these plants the ash (mountain ash) especially interests us. 
The same tree, the wood of which served for the creation of fire. 

63 



64 DREAMS AND MYTHS 

A juice was pressed from its branches which was called soma. 

Besides the earthly soma there is also, in the myth, a heavenly 
soma, and these two are identified with one another quite as we 
have seen was the case with the earthly and the heavenly fire. 
, On earth soma and fire are gotten from the ash. As according to 
the Prometheus saga the heavenly fire is kindled in the world-ash 
(the cloud-tree) so likewise, the heavenly soma comes from the 
world-ash. It is called forth by boring in the wood of the world- 
ash (that is in the clouds). The earthly soma is descended from 
the heavenly soma of the heavenly ash. A bird, which nested in 
the branches of the ash, brought it to the earth. The analogy 
with the fire saga is here quite striking. As the heavenly fire em- 
braces the heat of the sun and lightning, so also the heavenly soma 
is ambiguous; it is at the same time dew and rain and further 
still comes to be the drink of the gods. The cloud-tree is in 
certain myths exactly described. Its roots are in the sea; at its 
foot are springs which fall to the earth as rain. From the 
branches falls the dew.^^ 

We have established that in the oldest stratum of the Prome- 
theus saga the breaking out of the earthly and heavenly fires 
served only as symbolic representations of the process of procrea- 
tion. We may with justice assume that the earthly and heavenly 
soma also serve as symbolic representations of a third element 
that is still quite unknown to us. Although the meaning lies 
near it has escaped Kuhn. We will therefore have to pass by 
Kuhn's analysis in order that we may supply an explanation of 
the third and most important, because the original, significance 
of the soma. 

" Another idea, found in the Indo-germanic myths, saw in the clouds 
a running horse from whose mane the dew ran to the earth. From this 
cloud-horse the bearer of the inspiring soma, grew out, in the Greek 
mythology, the winged-horse Pegasus. On the other hand, from the flying 
clouds, the pursuing Erinnyes were formed. In the same way the saga 
touches of wild men in the Germanic mythology. The idea that one cloud 
hunts another and seeks to catch it we find again in a modem painting — 
Heuernte von Segantini. It is very remarkable that the phantasy of an 
artist, whose work embodies the idea of the unity of nature, should take 
the same direction as the phantasy of the race in prehistoric times. 



ANALYSIS OF THE MYTH OF THE ORIGIN OF NECTAR 6$ 

The heavenly soma is produced by boring in the clouds — thus 
through a symbolic act of procreation. The conclusion seems 
to me to lie near, the perception in the soma of a symbolic repre- 
sentation of semen. Semen has a vivifying and immortalizing, 
because propagating effect. It fertilizes like the heavenly soma 
which as dew and rain falls upon the earth. We are able now 
to understand why the sagas of the origin of fire and of the 
nectar of the gods are so closely related to each other. The 
procreative parts of the body and the semen can not be separated 
from one another. 

This oldest stratum of the myth, the sexual significance of 
which is now plain, underlies, as in the fire saga, a second stratum. 
It is differentiated also in this case from the first by the personifi- 
cation of the phenomena of nature, that is, by the appearance of 
man-like divine beings, by an intensive sexual repression. We 
meet a half divine being that bears the name of Soma. Soma is a 
genius of strength and procreation; our assumption of the pecu- 
liar nature of Soma receives here a full confirmation. In certain 
myths Agni, already known to us, appears in the place of Soma. 

It is of great interest, at this point, to refer to a Greek myth 
in which the idea of the origin of the nectar of the gods by boring 
was held. It especially opens the way to an understanding of the 
latest stratum of the Soma saga. Zeus desired to get to Perse- 
phone, who was hidden in the cloud mountain. To this end he 
changed himself into a serpent and bored into the mountain. This 
sexual symbolism, without further details, is incomprehensible to 
us. From .the union of Zeus and Persephone comes Dionysus, 
the god of wine, a personification of the nectar of the gods. 
Dionysus was nursed by the Hyades ; these are as rain goddesses 
likewise a personification of the heavenly soma ; as a constellation 
they preside over the rainy season, 

Zeus of Greek mythology corresponds to Indra of the Indian. 
He is also the god of the clear, unclouded heavens. He also plays 
an important role in the soma saga. He becomes the soma rob- 



66 DREAMS AND MYTHS 

ber. Indra brings soma out of a cave, as Matarichvan does Agni 
in the third stratum of the Prometheus saga, in which the Gand- 
harvas^^ guarded him. This robbery was carried out by Indra in 
the form of a falcon. In many sagas the robbery of the soma is 
also ascribed to Agni, who likewise takes on the form of a bird. 
We have met Agni before as the fire-robbing bird. Now we also 
learn to know him as the robber of the soma and have therein a 
remarkable identification before us. The falcon must contend 
with the Gandharvas for the possession of the soma. In the 
struggle he loses a feather which falls to the earth and changes 
into a soma plant. We have already met a quite similar story in 
the analysis of the Prometheus saga. Like the latter, the soma 
saga, in its third stratum, is so distorted that in the manifest con- 
tent the sexual is wholly dispensed with. 

We must go still further into the significance of the soma 
plant and will find on the way new evidence for the identity of 
the soma with human semen. The branch of the soma tree, a 
symbolic representation of the male organ, possesses wonderful 
attributes. It gives them not only to the soma drink; it serves 
much more the most various uses and ceremonies. From the 
mountain ash are obtained the so-called divining rods which serve, 
among other things, to locate subterranean water. According to 
a very ancient custom the herdsmen struck their cattle in the 
spring with a branch of the mountain ash to increase their fruit- 
fulness and production of milk. The branch of ,the soma tree 
turns also into a magic wand such as the staff of Hermes and 
the thyrsus with which Dionysus struck wine from the rock. We 
have already mentioned the biblical story in which Moses strikes 
water from the rock with his miraculous staff; the symbolic sig- 
nificance of this staff becomes still clearer, when we recall, that it 
changed into a serpent before the eyes of Pharaoh.^^ 

'*Kuhn has shown in a special work that from the Gandharvas have 
come a species of demon, the Centaurs of the Greek saga. 

'' The process of erection has plainly stimulated the phantasy activities 
to an extraordinary degree; the transformation of the staff (phallus) into 
a serpent signifies the return of the phallus to the quiescent condition. 



ANALYSIS OF THE MYTH OF THE ORIGIN OF NECTAR 67 

Of the extremely varied functions of the ash in the myths 
and customs one especially is interesting to us. From the wood 
of the ash the pestle is made which is used in the preparation of 
butter. This wood protects against all kinds of witchcraft which 
it is believed one is especially exposed to by butter. According 
to present sources there can now be no doubt that the process of 
making butter is quite comparable to the preparation of fire by 
the act of generation and is set symbolically in its place, that 
further the product, the butter, is identified respectively with 
semen and also with the soma. A tale of the Mahabarata de- 
scribes the origin of the soma as a process throughout analogous 
to the preparation of butter. I will give here Kuhn's*^ account 
greatly abbreviated. The gods desiring amrita (ambrosia) and 
the Asuras (bad demons) take the mountain Mandara as a butter 
stick in order to beat up the ocean with it. Indra laid the serpent 
Vasuki like a rope about the mountain and now the gods and 
Asura began to pull upon it. Out of the mouth of the pulled- 
upon serpent darted smoke and flame which formed into thick 
clouds which cast down lightning and rain upon the gods. At 
the same time, while the mountain was being whirled around, the 
trees standing together on its summit caught fire and the fire 
started in this way wrapped itself around the mountain like the 
lightning does the dark clouds. The fire Indra put out with water 
from the clouds, and all of the juices of the great trees and plants 
flowed into the sea, and out of this water mixed with the most 
excellent juices, which curdles into butter, the soma rises up, 
which in this saga is identified with the moon, after it different 
other mythical beings, and finally Dhanvantari comes forth hold- 
ing a white jug in which the amrita is found. The gods and 
Asuras contend for this and the former conquer. 

The oldest Indian epics contain numerous other representa- 
tions of the winning of the amrita. None of them speak against 
the signification of the soma assumed by me. Each of the three 

** Kuhn, " Die Herabkunft des Feuers," 1886, S. 219. 



6S DREAMS AND MYTHS 

strata, which we have been able to establish in the saga, contain 
a wish-fulfillment, which is throughout analogous to that in the 
corresponding stratum of the Prometheus saga. As in that, pro- 
creation or the organ that serves that purpose, so in this the semen 
originally receives its apotheosis. As the result of repression of 
the sexual content of the saga the semen gradually becomes trans- 
formed into the nectar of the gods. It becomes the gift of a good 
god to man. The saga of the soma goes through the same trans- 
formation as the Prometheus saga and ends, like it, in an actual, 
not sexual wish- fulfillment. 



XII 

The Wish Theory of the Myth 

I have tried, on the basis of psychological considerations, to 
give a theory of the origin of myths, and, through going into the 
analysis of examples, to lend it support. It is now time to discuss 
the relation of the views defended here to other mythological 
theories. 

The oldest, and I believe the most popular theory today, as- 
sumes the myth to be the figurative expression of philosophico- 
religious ideas. According to generally diffused views such ideas 
lie, so to speak, at the foundation of the life of the human psyche. 
I cannot myself follow this view. As little as the child comes 
into the world with an altruistic ethics, quite as little is it to be 
assumed that man, in prehistoric times, bears within himself philo- 
sophical or religious ideas and that he symbolizes these, by way 
of supplement, in the myths. An uncommonly long process of 
repression was necessary before such an ethics came to occupy 
an assured position in the race and this process of repression must 
be repeated in miniature again today by each individual. Our 
analysis of the Prometheus saga has shown that the single con- 
stituent which appeared as an ethical-religious idea — the view of 
Prometheus as a providential being — is of a quite subordinate, 
secondary nature, while ideas and wishes of quite another sort 
are found to be the true basis of the saga. As Freud has shown 
for the CEdipus saga, so I believe I have established for the Pro- 
metheus saga, that it has not taken its origin from ethical, reli- 
gious, or philosophical considerations, but from the sexual phan- 
tasies of mankind. I conceive the ethical-religious constituents 
of the myth as later impressions, as products of repression. The 
other sagas also, which I could not go into so completely, appear 
to me to speak throughout in favor of this view. 

69 



70 DREAMS AND MYTHS 

Fifty years ago, when Kuhn founded comparative mythology, 
the young science broke with the old views of the origin of myths. 
For example Delbruck*^ brought, with special precision, the revo- 
lution of opinion to expression. He declares that every myth 
goes back to a natural intuition. The myth is a naive effort at 
the explanation of natural phenomena. One credits myths now 
with an evolution and compares single sagas with the sagas of 
similar content of other peoples. 

A modern theory traces back all myths of Semitic and indo- 
germanic races to a single source: to the contemplation of the 
constellations. The more recent advances have shown Babylonia 
to be the home of astronomy and that very many myths indicate 
a Babylonian origin. This is the so-called astral theory. A short 
work by Winckler*^ is useful for purposes of orientation in this 
theory. 

If one takes a consideration of nature as the source of all 
myths, if one sees in them an expression of an astronomical 
view, such a theory is in this respect unsatisfactory. It gives 
us no perception of the motive in the myth formation. It takes 
no account of the egocentricity of all phantasy formations of 
mankind. Well may astronomical considerations have had a great 
influence on the outer forms of myths but their significance can 
only be secondary. In dreams also, observation of the outer 
world made by the dreamer, enter as material; they appear, if 
one neglects a careful analysis, to constitute the essential con- 
tent of the dream. He makes use of this material because he 
finds in it analogies to his " I " ; it serves him for the symbolic 
veiling of his wish phantasies. The astronomical view serves the 
race to the same end. It projects its phantasies in the heavens. 
At the central point of its myths stands the race itself; it expe- 
riences in them the fulfilling of its wishes. 

*^Delbruck, "Die Entstehung des Mythus bei den indogermanischen 
Volkern," Zeitschr. fiir Volkerpsychol. u. Sprachwissenschaft, Bd. 3, 1865. 

*^ Winckler, H., " Himmels- und Weltenbild der Babylonier als Grund- 
lage der Weltanschauung und Mythologie aller Volker." In "Der alte 
Orient," Leipzig, 1902. 



THE WISH THEORY OF THE MYTH /I 

The wish theory of myths is amplified without difficulty to a 
wish theory of religion. The original identification of man with 
his god has become, in myths and in religion, indistinguishable. 
Through a long process of repression the monotheistic races have 
advanced to the position of subordinating themselves to their god 
as their creator. When gradually great revolutions have led to 
the consideration of a single god as the father of mankind — no 
longer in the sense of the procreative but of the caring-for father 
— so again there is contained therein a wish phantasy which has 
Its roots in infancy. It is the same wish phantasy which Pro- 
metheus displayed in his love for the Greeks as " Forethought." 
Man wishes for a care-taking providence; he projects this wish 
in the heavens : there must dwell a care-taking father for all men. 
Quite as clearly the Madonna cult comes from a wish phantasy 
rooted in infancy. The caring-for mother, who is at the side of 
the child in all needs, the adult in the great needs of life will not 
dispense with. Therefore he carries over his retained childhood 
phantasy to the queen of heaven. A belief in the continuation 
of life after death is nothing but the fulfillment of a wish phan- 
tasy, whether it takes the form of another world in the Christian 
sense, or of a place of sensual delights in the sense of Islam. 

With the help of the wish theory I have formulated an expla- 
nation of the origin and the changes of myths. It remains to add 
something about the disappearance of myths. That myths dis- 
appear is a sufficiently known fact which includes, for us, a new 
analogy with dreams. Every dream suflfers regressive alterations 
whose tempo is sometimes quicker, sometimes slower. There 
takes place, however, no absolute forgetting, but the dream 
thoughts with their accompaniments return into the repression. 
So there comes a time when the race forgets its myths. Then 
there comes a time with each race, when it unburdens itself of 
traditions, when in place of the old structures of phantasy a tem- 
perate manner of thinking appears. This development was 
furthered as well through advancing knowledge of the laws of 



72 DREAMS AND MYTHS 

nature as through the general situation of the race which sat- 
isfied its grandiose complex. In this retrogressive process the 
other structures of the phantasy of the race shared and not the 
least the symbolism of language. The sexual symbolism of lan- 
guage experienced hardly any more growth while the existing 
symbolism disappeared. The English language has "advanced" 
furthest in this regard — we might more properly say " receded." 
In it the sexual differentiations are, except for insignificant traces, 
obliterated. The linguistic and mythical symbolism are plainly 
inadequate forms of expression for the modern spirit of the race ; 
especially is this so of the English. Practical results make wish 
phantasies unnecessary. A race proceeds otherwise when it is 
widely separated from the realization of the national grandiose 
complex. The example of the Jews is typical. They have pre- 
served, through long periods of time, the wish phantasies from 
the childhood of the race. One thinks of the wish dream of the 
chosen people and of the promised land. 

Modern natural science indicates by the designation " funda- 
mental biogenetic law " the fact that the development of the indi- 
vidual represents a condensed repetition of the development of 
the species. In long periods of time phylogenesis has brought 
about gradually, in this way, many bodily alterations. The indi- 
vidual in its development must go through all such stages of evo- 
lution. Also in the psychic field things are brought about in indi- 
viduals which phylogenetic development repeats. We have learned 
to know many phenomena in the m.ental life of the race and in 
that of the individual which are quite comparable to each other. 
The most important parallel for us, however, is this: The race, 
in prehistoric times, makes its wishes into structures of phantasy, 
which as myths reach over into the historical ages. In the same 
way the individual in his "prehistoric period" makes structures 
of phantasy out of his wishes which persist as dreams in the 
"historical" period. So is the myth a retained fragment from 
the infantile psychic life of the race and the dream is the myth of 
the individual. 



XIII 

The Determining Forces in the Psychic Life of the Indi- 
vidual AND THE Race 

The analytic investigations, the principles of which are con- 
tained in the works of Freud, extend to phenomena of the normal 
and of the abnormal psychic life, of individual and race psychol- 
ogy. He has succeeded in proving, in all these territories, that 
every psychic phenomenon is determined by definite causes. The 
belief in inspiration no longer needs to be refuted. The defense 
must be turned in another direction. It is a widely spread, yes 
even scientifically maintained view, that in the province of the 
psychic chance governs. One refuses to acknowledge, for all of 
the thousand occurrences of daily life, for the passing fancies, the 
mistakes, forgettings, etc., for the content of dreams, for the indi- 
vidual expressions of mental disorder, a determination by special 
psychic factors. One persists in the old, dualistic standpoint. 
One assigns to psychic events a special position, removing them 
from the category of things determined by natural law. The view 
which ascribes psychological results to chance, is in so far through- 
out sterile, that it never can be reckoned on in the individual phe- 
nomena of the psychic life. Here come Freud's teachings. They 
look upon every psychic phenomenon as an effect and seek for its 
specific psychological cause. The determining forces in the psy- 
chic life are the object of its trend of investigation. 

The child brings the fundamentals, as first determiners for his 
later psychological conduct, with him into the world. That side 
of this foundation which is of most importance for the explana- 
tion of all structures of phantasy, is the psycho-sexual constitu- 
tion. This expresses itself unsophistically in childhood until the 
process of repression begins. While the child is preparing to 

73 



PEB n ^9^'3 



74 DREAMS AND MYTHS 

transfer its inclination on to special living and lifeless objects and 
to draw it away from others, the influence of education, of the 
milieu, etc., impresses itself on it and constrains it to repress a 
portion of its natural feelings, and especially the sexual. Next, 
the inborn tendencies exercise a powerful determining influence 
on the repressed sexual infantilism. Infantile psychic material we 
meet anew in all the structures of phantasy. Reminiscences of 
later life are added as a third determinant. This also is met in 
great part in repression. Reminiscences, which are withdrawn 
from spontaneous recollection, are considered mostly as not exist- 
ing. Freud is the first one to have recognized the significance of 
repression and the determining eifects of the repressed psychic 
material, and to have given it its full value in all its relations. 

There are no accidents in the realm of the psychic. What 
outwardly appears as the result of accident has its deepest origin 
in the congenital equipment and the infantile sexual repression. 
The events after childhood are like tributaries which empty into 
this main stream. When we ascribe to the sexuality, among the 
determining forces, such a comprehensive significance, that in no 
way implies an overestimation of the sexual. Everywhere in 
organic life we find self-preservation subordinated to the higher 
principle of the preservation of the species. The impulse which 
serves species preservation must be the stronger; otherwise the 
race would perish. 

The analytic researches, in the sense of Freud, are in bad odor 
today with the critics. They share this fate with a branch of 
language research — etymology. It was once said of this, that 
what characterized it was that vowels played no role in it and the 
consonants an insignificant role. An interpretation of words rest- 
ing on scientific fundamentals has, however, carried the day; it 
bears rightly the name of a science of the " essential," that is of 
the true essence of the elements of speech. The Freudian teach- 
ing is an etymology of psychic phenomena. It also will finally 
establish itself, although it may be at the cost of many conflicts 
with prudery and the prejudices of modern science. 









Nervous and Mental Disease Monograph Series No. 15 



Dreams and Myths 



By 

DR. KARL ABRAHAM 

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1913 



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